In 1987 I spent a month in Auckland as a student at the North Shore hospital. A journalist friend drew my attention to an article in Metro magazine of earlier that year that had revealed a scandalous experiment at the National Women’s Hospital, concerning women with cervical cancer. So when I saw Linda Bryder’s A History of the ‘Unfortunate Experiment’ at National Women’s Hospital, I was curious to remind myself of this scandal, and perhaps learn the whole story.
Two women, journalist and feminist activist Sandra Coney and sociologist Phillida Bunkle, wrote the 1987 article called ‘An Unfortunate Experiment at National Women’s’ that alleged Dr Herbert Green, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, had withheld conventional treatment from women with abnormal cells in their cervix (carcinoma in situ or cervical dysplasia) to study the course of the disease. A proportion of these women went on to develop cervical cancer, and some of those died. As a result of this article, the Labour Government of the time set up an Inquiry, lead by Judge Silvia Cartwright, which produced a report in July 1988 that concluded the medical profession had failed patients. Many recommendations of Cartwright were implemented, including national screening and patient advocacy.
Linda Bryder is a medical historian, and was researching the history of the National Women’s Hospital (NWH) when she realised that the cervical ‘experiment’ needed a book of its own. What she has produced is methodical, detailed, thoroughly researched and scholarly, if a little dry at times. It is probably more for academics and medical professionals than the general reader, though the lessons she draws from her research are important for society as a whole. As she states in her introductory chapter, the ‘examination of the Cartwright Inquiry provides a lens through which to explore the relationship between women’s bodies, technology and medicine in the late twentieth century’ (6). I think it also reveals the disjunct between the medical community and the public when it comes to understanding health and disease, and that the media often fails to be the bridge between the two.
Go to M/C Reviews: Culture and the Media to continue reading...
Interestingly, and I hesitated to write this before, I knew one of the men who sat on the officiating Board who looked into this scandalous experiment. He didn't discuss the ruminations of the board with any of us of course, but he did send a request for a picture of the family cat as it had especially green eyes. The Board members had got into a discussion or competition about their pets. I'm always fascinated by these glimpses of ordinary life amongst people of extraordinary ability.
ReplyDeleteThe family cat? How bizarre Barbara!
ReplyDelete