http://www.elimparcial.com/Edicionenlinea/Fotos/LoCurioso/1018381-G.JPG
Throughtout the book, Reproductive Justice, many different aspects of women's rights are discussed with a heavy focus on the female body. A woman is so often looked at as only a reproducer that she loses herself in that idea. Women are people. Humans, not machines. Women are NOT reproducers, but they are capable of reproducing. In many societies today, this view does exist and I believe that one of Gurr's main ideas in this book was to change the minds of those who think that way. As I was reading through Chapter four titled, "The Ruling Relations of Reproductive Health Care", I was intrigued by something. The idea of experimentation on women of color historically.
Historically, doctors and future doctors experimented on the bodies of women of color as well as poor women. "Maternity wards served as the location of knowledge production and reproduction as future generations of doctors learned from more advanced colleagues and from the bodies of poor women" (Gurr, 42). These medical experiments were not just done exclusively on women, but men as well. People of color were often subjected to participate in medical experiments whether it be against their will or without their knowledge. This is beyond unethical and absolutely absurd, but was sadly prevalent in the United States during slavery. Slave masters as well as hospitals performed medical experiments on slaves. "In the 1850’s, Dr. T. Stillman placed an add for “sick Negroes” and slave masters were happy to hand over ill or elderly slaves who could no longer work. It was a win-win for slave owners who got back their slaves if they were healed, and if they weren’t healed, then hospitals paid for the burial," (breakingbrown). These slaves had no say in what was going to be done to their bodies and doctors often times did not bother to use anesthesia. The amount of pain and suffering that was endured is unimaginable.
The story of medical experimentation that Gurr included in this chapter that truly interested me was that of J. Marion Sims or the "Father of Modern Gynecology" as he is often referred to be. Sims created a cure for the vesica-vaginal fistula. A fistula is a hole between the urinary tract and either the rectum or the vagina. This hole causes feces and urine to leak uncontrollably from the vagina and/or rectum. This leads women to be outcasted from their peers and looked upon as unsanitary. Women who suffer from different types of fistulas are subject to humiliation and social stigmas. Sims created a cure for the vesica-vaginal fistula, but in no way shape or form was this cure created in an ethical way. Sims conducted experiments on slave women and taught new doctors his ways using the bodies of slave women as well. (Gurr, 42). "These women were not afforded anesthesia, and Tina Cassidy (2006) asserts that they most likely became addicted to opium, a much cheaper narcotic" (Gurr, 42). Not only were these women forced into being poked, prodded, and performed procedures on, but they had to go through it and feel every bit of pain associated with being operated on. This is a primal example of the devalorization of not only black bodies, but women's bodies.
I find a heavy load of irony in the fact that medical professionals used the bodies of people of color to find cures for things, but these people were not equal to white people. Their bodies could be cured by the same things, but they were very far from being the same. White women allowed their black slaves to wet nurse their children, but they viewed these women as lesser than themselves. Many whites even considered white and black people to be of different species. White masters raped and impregnated their black slaves, but they were different species? In the novel Black Odyssey, Nathaniel Huggins states; “In response to questions of how truly different species can mate to produce offspring, they quickly pointed out that horses and donkeys could produce mules, so whites and blacks could produce mulattoes.” (Huggins, 120). There was this constant effort to justify the grotesque acts whites committed against blacks.
Referring to my last few points I also find irony in the fact that after these procedures or products were tested they were used on the general population. A lot of times historically at least people of color/the people who were tested on were not in fact able to receive these types of treatment when they were proven to work. In the past, there were so many medical experiments done on people of color and poor people that have caused trust issues with the healthcare system and doctors overall. People fear being sterilized, given a disease, or being rejected when seeking out help. We see examples of these in such cases as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks' cells. Although, we seem to be past the phase of experimenting on black bodies there is no denying the history. We also have to keep in mind that black bodies are not the only ones that have been violated for this reason. Gurr speaks of the violation of prisoners, Indians, women, as well as people of color. Even if we do not want it to, history can affect the present.
Resources:
Huggins, N. I. (1977). Black odyssey: The Afro-American ordeal in slavery. New York: Pantheon Books.
Gurr, B. A. (n.d.). Reproductive justice: The politics of health care for Native American women.
White Torture of Black Bodies: 6 Medical Experiments on African-Americans You Never Knew About - Breaking Brown. (2014). Retrieved March 03, 2016, from http://breakingbrown.com/2014/03/white-torture-of-black-bodies-6-medical-experiments-on-african-americans-you-never-knew-about/
No comments:
Post a Comment