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Dr. Ben Carson has thrown his hat in the ring as one of the 2016 Republican Presidential candidates. He had made his share of gaffs.
He’s compared Obamacare to slavery. He was for gun control – especially assault weapons – before he was against it. He compared homosexuality to bestiality and child abuse. He said fashion models looked like Auschwitz prisoners. (Source: Blue Nation Review)
I do not believe that he can be a candidate unless he answers for the shameful practices of medical schools, AND promises an end to them. I speak of pelvic exams and other intimate exams of patients, while under anesthesia, by medical students, WITHOUT explicit consent.
Here are links to PubMed articles (National Institutes of Health) on the subject
- Autonomy suspended: using female patients to teach intimate exams without their knowledge or consent.
- Unauthorized practice: teaching pelvic examination on women under anesthesia.
- The ethics of intimate examinations-teaching tomorrow's doctors.
- Written consent for intimate examinations undertaken by medical students in the operating theatre--time for national guidelines?
- Ethics versus education: pelvic exams on anesthetized women.
The issue was brought to light in 2003. The practice was rampant especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s (Carson graduated medical school in 1977). I am sure that Dr. Ben Carson had learned to to pelvic exams in this manner. A 2003 survey of Philadelphia medical students found that 90 percent reported being asked to perform pelvic exams on women who had not explicitly consented to the procedure. (Source: PubMed, "Don't ask, don't tell: a change in medical student attitudes after obstetrics/gynecology clerkships toward seeking consent for pelvic examinations on an anesthetized patient.” )
This act of rape under the guise of medical care is still happening today. See the 2012 PubMed article, Practicing pelvic examinations by medical students on women under anesthesia: why not ask first?
As a medical student, Dr. Shawn Barnes had an experience that he says left him feeling ashamed and conflicted. During his rotation through the obstetrics and gynecology ward of a teaching hospital in Hawaii, Barnes performed pelvic exams on women under anesthesia without the women's explicit consent to the procedure…
"For three weeks, four to five times a day, I was asked to, and did, perform pelvic examinations on anesthetized women," Barnes wrote in an editorial published in the October issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology…
But Barnes says the exams are done without explicit consent more often than these doctors indicate. A 2003 survey of Philadelphia medical students found that 90 percent reported being asked to perform pelvic exams on women who had not explicitly consented to the procedure. (Source: Live Science)
It is not only women at risk for this, but men are at risk too. (Source: ABC News, "Students Perform Pelvic Exams Without Consent”) In fact, male modesty and consent is often overlooked more than female modesty and consent. (Reference: Patient gender preferences for medical care)
Donald Trump needs to call Dr. Ben Carson out on the issue of how he learned to do pelvic exams and other intimate exams. Has he ever owned up to what he did? Has he ever apologized for what he has done. This does not only happen to women, but to men as well (although it is not as publicized).
Donald Trump has been hard on all candidates, asking the tough questions. Now he needs to get tough on Carson.
The problem stems from physicians and medical students believing that patients are obligated to be teaching subjects, hence reducing patients to warm cadavers. This had become such an issue, that ethical research was done to show physicians and students that patients do NOT have an obligation to participate in medical training. (See: PubMed, "Refuting patients' obligations to clinical training: a critical analysis of the arguments for an obligation of patients to participate in the clinical education of medical students”)
Even in 2015, physicians and medical students believe that patients are obligated to be teaching subjects and insufficient respect for patients’ autonomy. (Source: PubMed, “Medical Students’ and Physicians’ Attitudes toward Patients’ Consent to Participate in Clinical Training”)
Please note that I do not have any direct proof that Dr. Ben Carson was trained in this manner,BUT if you look at the 2003 PubMed article cited above, 90% of medical students admitted to being asked to perform pelvic exams on women who had not explicitly consented. When you take in to account a certain number of students may have been ashamed of doing this and lied, the number is higher.
Further, being a medical student and a person of color in the 1970’s and 1980’s, there was a perception that the medical student was not the most qualified candidate (reference: Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine, Taking My Place in Medicine: A Guide for Minority Medical Students, and The Atlantic), hence not the best doctor.
Couple that perception with the racism of the time (racism is still a problem today), AND being male, Dr. Carson would probably have had very few opportunities to perform pelvic exams as a medical student. (reference: Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine, and Taking My Place in Medicine: A Guide for Minority Medical Students)
None of this is meant to degrade Dr. Carson, in fact it does just the opposite. There’s no doubt that Ben Carson is a brilliant neurosurgeon, although now retired from his illustrious career as a neurosurgeon, Dr. Carson holds 67 honorary doctorates, is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society and sits on the board of directors of several leading organizations.
What just as disturbing, is Dr. Ben Carson’s anti-gay views and comments are paramount to a racism of sexual or gender identity. Dr. Carson compared gays who support marriage equality to pedophiles and practitioners of bestiality during a March 27 interview on Fox News' Hannity. (Reference: Media Matters)
Patients should feel safe at a physician’s office, and physicians expect patients to be honest and tell them the most intimate details of their lives. According to new research, your doctor may biased against LGBT patients. New findings from research conducted by the University of Washington show that health care providers may in fact harbor biases against patients of opposing sexual orientations.
According to the abstract of the study published online Thursday by the American Journal of Public Health, “implicit preferences for heterosexual people versus lesbian and gay people are pervasive among heterosexual health care providers.” This maltreatment amounts to torture.
A federal court in Minnesota issued a preliminary ruling in a case concluding that discrimination against an individual because of his gender identity is prohibited under the Affordable Care Act…
The lawsuit, known as Rumble v. Fairview Health Services, was filed in June 2014 by the Minnesota-based advocacy group Gender Justice. In addition to making claims on the basis of the Affordable Care Act, the lawsuit also alleges the hospital violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The court also allows the litigation to move forward on the basis of alleged discrimination under this statute. (Source: Washington Blade)
There can be no free pass for Dr. Ben Carson. Donald Trump talks about getting tough. It is time that he needs to get tough on Ben Carson. He needs to ask him about learning PEs and his views on LGBT individuals.
Thank you for reading.
