A Legacy of Indifference

A Legacy of Indifference

By Kimberly Reyes

“If there was anything I hated, it was investigating the organs of the female pelvis.”- J. Marion Sims- The ‘Father of Modern Gynecology’

The legacy of the good doctor Sims and the slave women he experimented on has been a topic of widespread discussion in recent years. Yet the true legacy of his work still in practice is all too often swept under the rug, much like his infamous statue; which to be clear was not actually destroyed upon removal from Central Park, but quietly moved to the cemetery in Brooklyn where he was laid to rest. There is a tendency in our discussions of the past to relegate the sins of these historical boogeymen to a bygone era. Both proponents and detractors of men like Sims all too often fail to recognize the lasting impact their work has had. It serves no purpose to tear down statues and demand namesakes be revoked if we fail to address their actual tangible legacy.

Much has been written over the years about Sims’ work. Efforts aimed either to praise or to malign often mention his own words as a mere afterthought. Historiography reeks disingenuous when it relies on anecdote and conjecture to make a point. The good doctor himself wrote, “I made this proposition to the owners of the negroes : If you will give me Anarcha and Betsey for experiment...But my operations all failed, so far as a positive cure was concerned. This went on, not for one year, but for two and three, and even four years. I kept all these negroes…”

Four years. Four years of experimentation consented to by someone who considered you chattel worth only as much as the price your children would fetch them. Let it be made abundantly clear that we are talking about upwards of 20 different surgeries on these women. Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey, lest we forget their names. Surgeries done without anesthesia, while on all fours with curious doctors and students observing and participating. The pain and humiliation these women were subjected to is unconscionable. Sims’ actions are all too often excused by saying the man was merely a ‘product of his time’. The problem with this excuse is that it belies the fact that in many ways times haven’t really changed. 

The 19th Century birthed many of our most reputable fields of medicine, along with the journals that chronicled their ‘discoveries’. It was a time in which medical training was cursory at best and often perfected in the form of apprenticeships or field experience. These journals influenced the practice and tools of the field much the way they do today. The works of doctors such as Phillip Tidyman and Samuel Cartwright (respected authorities of the era) are riddled with ‘scientific’ evidence suggesting not only surface but actual physiological and anatomical differences between the races. Assumptions about the so called “negro” subjects of their studies suggest differences in everything from circulatory patterns, respiratory capacity and even a dulled sensitivity to pain in some cases. We would assume that such absurdities would be relegated to a distant past, their assumptions long since disproven. And we would be wrong. 

A study published by the National Academy of Sciences in April of 2016 came to the following conclusion: 

“... many white medical students and residents hold beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites...these false beliefs are related to racial bias in pain perception... participants who endorsed more of these beliefs reported that a black patient would feel less pain and they were less accurate in their treatment recommendations.”

Let’s be abundantly clear about what is being said here because it needs to be restated. In the year 2016 there were medical students and residents who still held long disproven myths about racial differences to be true and it actually affected the way in which they treated patients. The gravity of the legacy of mistakes made during the infancy of modern medicine cannot continue to be ignored. Removing a statue or renaming a building merely pay lip service to very real and often fatal disparities in this country. It’s not enough to wrestle with the demons of yesteryear if we ignore their very real legacy in today’s world. 

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For further reading on topics related to this article:

The Full Autobiography of J. Marion Sims

Interview with author Bettina Judd who wrote a collection of poems from the point of view of the women Sims experimented on

Samuel Cartwrights writing on Black Health from the 19th Century

Full Text of study: Racial Bias in Pain Assessment and Treatment