James Marion Sims and slavery

Sir, – Writing a book chapter about the famous Dr James Sims just 30 years ago, Prof Chris Fitzpatrick failed to mention Sims’s experimentation on enslaved people for a horrendous obstetric complication without consent. For this he simply says sorry, although he was writing with well over century of hindsight following abolition (“The ‘Father of Gynaecology’ Dr James Marion Sims and his brutal experiments on slaves”, Opinion & Analysis, May 14th). He is meanwhile unwilling to forgive his eminent predecessor for failing to administer anaesthesia to his patients, despite the fact that it wasn’t invented when Sims planned and undertook the study and the gynaecology profession rejected its use for many years afterward (Letters, May 16th). Prof Fitzpatrick seems to anticipate considerably more forgiveness of his own omissions than he affords others.

It’s also, in my view, fair to consider that the term “informed consent” was first used in the 1950s and became a serious consideration only in the early 1970s. It is indeed fashionable to publicly hold historical characters to modern standards but I struggle to see what it achieves. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN O’BRIEN,

Kinsale,