J. Marion Sims, MD: Why He and His Accomplishments Need to Continue to be Recognized a Commentary and Historical Review

Abstract

This review provides a fresh perspective on the work of J. Marion Sims, an Antebellum era physician who invented the vaginally speculum that bears his name. His accent to become the "Father of Modern Gynecology" was his groundbreaking development of the surgical techniques for the repair for vesicovaginal fistula. Recent scholarship, however, has pointed to the dark side of Sims in that his techniques were perfected through his use of Black slave women as his research subjects. In addition, he has been criticized for his failure to use anesthesia during his research operations. This article argues that Sims's work needs to be understood in a broader historical context and within the broader framework of other forms of human experimentation that took place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There is a strong argument that recent attempts to remove Sims from history also have the unintended consequence of removing the contributions of not only the Black slave women who were his subjects in the development of modern obstetrical medicine, but the important role Blacks played in the development of other medical procedures.

Keywords: Anesthesia; Blacks; Gynecology; Medical experiments; Slavery; Speculum.