Reference
- J. Marion Sims-Encyclopedia of AlabamaJ. Marion Sims (1813-1883) practiced medicine in central Alabama from 1835 to 1849. He is often credited with being the "father of gynecology," but his methods and practices continue to cause great controversy regarding his place in medical history. During his Alabama years, he developed medical and surgical techniques and tools that revolutionized the new field of gynecology and through them had a successful career in New York and Europe. But scholars also point out that Sims's experimental surgeries, which were performed on enslaved women subjected to forced treatment, caused great suffering and helped to prop up the institution of slavery. Sims thus remains a controversial figure in medical history, despite his contributions to the field...
Under the authority of three local plantation masters, Sims performed experimental surgeries primarily on three enslaved women, Lucy, Betsey, and Anarcha, as well as various others, during the course of nearly four years. Anarcha, for example, had given birth at 17 after laboring for three days. Sims used forceps to end the ordeal and found that she suffered from VVF in the aftermath. In 1849, after some 30 surgeries, all of which were performed without anesthesia, Sims claimed he had cured her...
Today, there is considerable debate about the ethics of his surgeries. His innovations stand as a lasting contribution to medicine, as many women continue to incur the labor-related injuries suffered by Sims's patients. Generally, however, scholars and other researchers consider Sims's methods unethical, and indeed some have compared his experiments with those conducted during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and in Nazi Germany. In 2018, in response to the controversy over his methods, the City of New York moved a statue of Sims from Central Park to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, where he is buried.
Perspectives
Medical Bondage
The accomplishments of pioneering doctors such as John Peter Mettauer, James Marion Sims, and Nathan Bozeman are well documented. It is also no secret that these nineteenth-century gynecologists performed experimental caesarean sections, ovariotomies, and obstetric fistula repairs primarily on poor and powerless women. Medical Bondage breaks new ground by exploring how and why physicians denied these women their full humanity yet valued them as ?medical superbodies? highly suited for medical experimentation. In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white ?ladies.? Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities. Medical Bondage moves between southern plantations and northern urban centers to reveal how nineteenth-century American ideas about race, health, and status influenced doctor-patient relationships in sites of healing like slave cabins, medical colleges, and hospitals. It also retells the story of black enslaved women and of Irish immigrant women from the perspective of these exploited groups and thus restores for us a picture of their lives.
Alabama Women
Another addition to the Southern Women series, Alabama Women celebrates women's histories in the Yellowhammer State by highlighting the lives and contributions of women and enriching our understanding of the past and present. Exploring such subjects as politics, arts, and civic organizations, this collection of eighteen biographical essays provides a window into the social, cultural, and geographic milieux of women's lives in Alabama. Featured individuals include Augusta Evans Wilson, Maria Fearing, Julia S. Tutwiler, Margaret Murray Washington, Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, Ida E. Brandon Mathis, Ruby Pickens Tartt, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, Sara Martin Mayfield, Bess Bolden Walcott, Virginia Foster Durr, Rosa Parks, Lurleen Burns Wallace, Margaret Charles Smith, and Harper Lee. Contributors: -Nancy Grisham Anderson on Harper Lee -Harriet E. Amos Doss on the enslaved women surgical patients of J. Marion Sims -Wayne Flynt and Marlene Hunt Rikard on Pattie Ruffner Jacobs -Caroline Gebhard on Bess Bolden Walcott -Staci Simon Glover on the immigrant women in metropolitan Birmingham -Sharony Green on the Townsend Family -Sheena Harris on Margaret Murray Washington -Christopher D. Haveman on the women of the Creek Removal Era -Kimberly D. Hill on Maria Fearing -Tina Naremore Jones on Ruby Pickens Tartt -Jenny M. Luke on Margaret Charles Smith -Rebecca Cawood McIntyre on Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Sara Martin Mayfield -Rebecca S. Montgomery on Ida E. Brandon Mathis -Paul M. Pruitt Jr. on Julia S. Tutwiler -Susan E. Reynolds on Augusta Evans Wilson -Patricia Sullivan on Virginia Foster Durr -Jeanne Theoharis on Rosa Parks -Susan Youngblood Ashmore on Lurleen Burns Wallace
Online Resources
- The controversial Dr. J. Marion Sims (1813-1883).J. Marion Sims (1813-1883) is often regarded as the founder of modern surgical gynecology. Widely known and respected during his lifetime, he was honored after death with a statue erected in New York City's Bryant Park. It was later relocated to Central Park, where it remained until 2018, when it was removed after persistent public protests over its presence. The controversy arose over perceptions of Sims's most famous achievement: the development of the first reliable surgical cure for vesico-vaginal fistula, a catastrophic complication of prolonged obstructed labor, which was common in the nineteenth century.
- Historical Aspects of Race and Medicine: The Case of J. Marion Sims.In April 2018, after years of controversy, New York City
removed a statue of Dr J. Marion Sims from Central Park
across from the New York Academy ofMedicine. For decades, Sims had been a polarizing figure. He was praised
as a “father of modern gynecology” for his pathbreaking surgical treatment of vesico-vaginal fistula, but vilified because he developed the technique by experimenting on enslaved women in Alabama in the 1840 - J Marion Sims and the ‘forgotten women of gynaecology’L. Lewis Wall comments on the surgical operations conducted by Dr J Marion Sims and the ethics surrounding his work
- On the treatment of vesico-vaginal fistula-J. Marion SimsVesico-Vaginal Fistula: An abnormal communication between the bladder and vagina, allowing an involuntary discharge of urine - is produced generally by tedious
labour. The impacted foetal head, jamming the anterior vaginal parietes against the symphysis pubis, obstructs the circulation of the parts, which results in a slough of
greater or less extent, according to the degree and duration of the impaction...
The US medical system is still haunted by slavery
- The US medical system is still haunted by slaveryBlack women's history matters in medicine. Some material may be objectionable due to medical-related nudity.
Remembering Anarcha
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window
REMEMBERING ANARCHA explores the legacy of "the father of modern gynecology," Dr. J. Marion Sims, the enslaved women subjected to his experiments, and related issues of ethics, race, and the lingering effects on modern society and medicine. Some material may be objectionable.
Websites/News
- 'Father Of Gynecology,' Who Experimented On Slaves, No Longer On Pedestal In NYCNew York City has removed a statue of J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century gynecologist who experimented on enslaved women, from a pedestal in Central Park.
The statue will be moved to a cemetery in Brooklyn where Sims, sometimes called the "father of gynecology," is buried. A new informational plaque will be added both to the empty pedestal and the relocated statue, and the city is commissioning new artwork to reflect the issues raised by Sims' legacy. - How this Black doctor is exposing the racist history of gynecology-TodayDr. J. Marion Sims is known as the founding father of gynecology. He earned this title through contributions made by experimenting on enslaved Black women.
- J Marion Sims: controversial statue taken down but debate still ragesNew York City has removed the likeness of the 19th-century doctor and ‘father of gynecology’ who experimented on black women from Central Park
- The Surgeon Who Experimented on SlavesFellow doctors have been some of the most prominent defenders of J. Marion Sims, the controversial “father of gynecology.”
- The ‘Father of Modern Gynecology’ Performed Shocking Experiments on Enslaved Women-History ChannelHis use of Black bodies as medical test subjects falls into a history that includes the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and Henrietta Lacks.
Dr. J. Marion Sims: A dishonor to women in East Harlem
- Dr. J. Marion Sims: A dishonor to women in East HarlemIn February 2017 East Harlem Preservation held an in-studio discussion at Manhattan Neighborhood Network's El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center about ongoing efforts to remove the controversial statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims from its Fifth Avenue location. In addition to examining the presumed accomplishments of Dr. Sims, who experimented on enslaved Black women without anesthesia or informed consent, participants discussed the civil and reproductive rights of women of color. Some material may be objectionable.