Anarcha Westcott

Biography

Anarcha Westcott (c. 1828 – June 27, 1869) was an American enslaved woman who is known as the "Mother of Modern Gynaecology" for having undergone a series of experimental surgical procedures conducted by medical doctor J. Marion Sims, without the use of anesthesia, in order to develop treatments for vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula resulting from traumatic childbirth, primarily aimed at benefitting white female patients. Sims's medical experimentation on Anarcha and other enslaved women, and its role in the development of modern gynaecology, has generated controversy among medical historians, particularly because enslaved women did not have the right to refuse involvement.

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