18 Experiments That Crossed Every Line, Ranked By Cruelty

In the 1840s, physician James Marion Sims performed experimental surgeries on enslaved Black women in Alabama while developing treatments for severe childbirth-related injuries. Women such as Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey underwent repeated procedures without their consent and without anesthesia, which wasn’t considered necessary for enslaved patients at the time. Sims later became known as a pioneer of gynecology. But his legacy remains deeply controversial since many of his medical advances came through the suffering of women who had no power to refuse.