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Thursday, February 25, 2016

For the sake of whom? American gynaecology and its sordid beginnings

I do not know how to file this. History? Yes. Black History? I dunno. More like history as usual in the US. I listened and cringed and threw up in my mouth a little when I researched further.. And prayed that this, or any other type of experimentation was NOT going on anyone now. But it is. The main experiment going on now? NORPLANT. And it's global. Look it up. Yes, it's a birth control measure but....It was developed to block contraception but it will render a woman barren eventually. And who gets this as a form of birth control mostly? Poor women of all races. Think about that.

Years ago when my mom was working in the medical system as a nurse, the method pushed on poor women was the IUD. In particular, the Dalkon Shield. People in the know used to call it the Dalkon Killer. Women died from using this device. Or were rendered barren due to infections, or uteri being perforated by this "miracle aid." Anyway, this NPR report gave me the heeby jeebies. Its subjects are the "lab rats" Anarcha, Lucy and Betsy - just three of the God-knows-how-many enslaved Black women - who under the yoke, endured, for science, for a doctor's glory, the horrors of the budding field of modern gynaecology. The experimenter? A Doctor James Marion Sims, father of modern gynaecology also known as "Father Butcher." Yikes!

And do not whine to me that it wasn't racist, or that somebody had to do it. Really? If so, answer me this. Why didn't he add poor non-Black women and non-Black women of means to his experiments?

Go on. I'll wait.

Thought so.


http://www.npr.org/2016/02/16/466942135/remembering-anarcha-lucy-and-betsey-the-mothers-of-modern-gynecology

http://usslave.blogspot.com/2011/05/dr-j-marion-sims-medical-experiments-on.html




2 comments:

  1. Have you read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? I was so angry for days after reading that. You'll need Jeeves to bring all of your tea.

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  2. Oy. And oy again. That book is next on my list. Wonders never cease, and people are expendable, where science is concerned.

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