The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Dr. J. Marlon Sims, Controversial "Father of Modern Gynecology"

Yesterday, I wrote about critics in New York City wanting a statue to this man, J. Marlon Sims, removed from Central Park.  His work is indeed laudable, but the way in which he did it was shocking.

From 1845 to 1849, in Montgomery, Alabama, he operated on 12 black slave women with fistula.  They were brought to him by their owners.  And, he did it without using anesthetics.  This is where I find a serious problem with him.

Besides the statue in Central Park, there are also ones in the Alabama and South Carolina capitols as well as a marker at his birthplace in South Carolina.

If the memorials are allowed to remain, mention of the slave women and his not using anesthesia definitely need to be mentioned.  This puts him in the same situation as the Nazi doctors who experimented on people in the concentration camps.

Again, I Would Have No Problem With the Statue's Removal.  If It Stays, There Should Definitely Be Signage About the Slave Women He Used.  --Old Secesh

No comments: