In a quaint little corner of the South Carolina statehouse sits a memorial statue to a man named J. Marion Sims. One inscription on the memorial reads: 'HE FOUNDED THE SCIENCE OF GYNECOLOGY AND HONORED ALL LANDS AND DIED WITH THE BENEDICTION OF MANKIND'. A second inscription reads: 'FIRST SURGEON OF THE AGES TO WOMEN--TREATING ALIKE EMPRESS AND SLAVE'.
So why, you may wonder, is the 'Father of Gynecology' memorialized on South Carolina's statehouse. To answer that is to answer why he's also on Alabama's statehouse grounds, and why he's on 5th Avenue in New York City at the entrance to Central Park. This guy was a big deal. But oooooohhhh baby, death has not been kind to Dr. Sims--this man is HATED by a lot of folks.
Some call him a hero--he operated on slaves, repairing vaginal tears caused from childbirth. He operated on poor Irish immigrant women, when most doctors wouldn't. He treated Napoleon III's wife. He even treated President James Garfrield after he was shot (unsuccessfully, as it turned out).
But others call him a monster, linking him with doctors of the Nazi concentration camps and the Tuskegee experiments. Wanna find out why? Check it out here.
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