Medical Experimentation

Even though we watched the film La operacion a few classes ago, this film has stayed with me. This film presents a powerful take on medical experimentation and the rampant racism that existed and still exists in our world. The forced sterilization of these women was ethically and morally wrong. The women were misinformed (if they were informed at all) about what was taking place because many thought that they could have children later on if they so desired. The misogynistic structure of society is revealed in this piece because in the vast majority of the cases in this film the information and consent forms were given to the husbands. Also, the idea of male sterilization, which is much less invasive than female sterilization, was never pursued as an actual possibility. Another fact that clearly indicates the subjugation of women is that the city leaders who were implementing these plans were male. An aspect of this coercive sterilization process that surprised me was the fact that women employees were the ones that went and solicited the poor women to come in and be sterilized! 

The sterilization program in Puerto Rico preyed on a class and group of society that had no means of protecting themselves. This is a common theme that we have already seen in the article on Sim's experimentation on slave women, and the treatment of intersex individuals and their families.  Other groups of society that were clearly targeted and abused by medical experiments because of their minority status in America were Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and African Americans. I found Smith's article on medical experimentation in Native communities to be particularly chilling because these were horrible experiments that were done on these communities and yet these atrocities have still have not received the national recognition that they should. The minority status of these groups allows people of others races and backgrounds to distance themselves from these people and dehumanize them to the degree that allows for this medical experimentation. This is a problem that is very relevant for our modern society because lots of drug testing and other types of medical experimentation are moving over seas to Africa and other places. We have allowed and are allowing groups of people that have no means of protecting themselves because of their position in our modern day society to be exploited. This clearly emphasizes the need for ethical guidelines and a stronger public interest in the doings of pharmaceutical companies and medicine in general.