Research Question: has the history of medical science been built off the foundation of unethical medical research/experimentation on African Americans?
Summary: the article gives a different perspective on the experiments done by Dr. Sims when he discovered the vesicovaginal fistula. Walls states, "the claims against Sims are largely without merit and his original patients were willing participants in his surgical attempts. Wall tore apart the article written by Ojanua claiming everything to be false. Ojanua claimed that eveything Sims did was unethical while Wall claims that Sims is a man to be praised. Wall states," Sim's reputation diminished considerably in the mid-twentieth century as it was assaulted by a series of strident critics who condemned him for his reputedly unethical behavior," (wall). Wall touches on three main points that were established in Ojanua's paper. The first being "it was unethical by any standard to perform experimental surgery on slaves because slaves by definition, could not have given voluntary informed consent for sugery. Second being that Sim's failure to use ether anesthesia during these operations was racist and the last being that the use of slaves for medical experiementation was unnecessary because substantial advances in medical care were made in a ethical manner." All this claims appeared in Ojanua's and Wall went about making every claim invalid.
I love that I found this paper. It does not change my position but it did add to the other side of the story. Giving me the curiosity to search more for the truth.
Wall, L.L. "The medical ethics of Dr J Marion Sims: a fresh look at the historical record." Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (2006): 346-350. Print.
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