These two videos contain descriptions that may be difficult to hear
for some people: the practice of medical students performing pelvic exams
on anesthetized women without their consent and without their knowledge.
This has come under fire over the years,
but obviously not enough since it continues to this day.
"Medical Students Practice Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Women Without Their Consent"
From Heart Failure, a book I wrote about my time in medical school:
"I am all gloved up, fifth in line.
At Tufts School of Medicine, medical students---particularly male students--
practice pelvic exams on anesthetized women
without their consent and without their knowledge.
Women come in for surgery, and once they're asleep,
we all gather around; line forms to the left."
"We learn more than examination skills.
Taking advantage of the woman's vulnerability--
as she lay naked on a table unconscious --
we learn that patients are tools to exploit for our education."
Using female patients to teach pelvic exams without their knowledge
or consent remains a dirty little secret about medical schools.
It's an age-old practice that continues to this day
in medical schools around the world.
It's been referred to as the "vending machine" model of pelvic exams,
in which students line up to take their turn.
Only it's not a vending machine, it's a woman's vagina.
It's been called an outrageous assault
upon the dignity and autonomy of the patient.
The practice shows a lack of respect of these patients as persons,
revealing a moral insensitivity and a misuse of power.
It is yet another example of the way in which physicians abuse their power
and have shown themselves unwilling to police themselves
in matters of ethics, especially with regard to female patients.
"I don't think any of us even think about it," said the director
of resident and medical student education at Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine.
"It's just so standard as to how you train medical students."
When this practice came to light in New Zealand, the chair
of the Medical Association got on television and said,
"Until recently it wasn't an issue . . . I'm very sorry that women feel
they've been assaulted and violated in this way.
That was never our intention."
He had no idea then, asked the reporter, that women might object?
"All I can say is there's been no objections . . . "
"Could the reason be," asked the interviewer, "that it's very hard
for an anesthetized woman to know what's going on?"
Many hospitals and medical schools have publicly defended the practice,
contending this touching is entirely appropriate and clearly falls well
within the patient's implied consent to carry out the operation.
After all, patients are aware they're entering a teaching hospital and
therefore know that trainees will be actively participating in their care.
Though researchers have found that many patients don't know
they're in a teaching hospital, or that medical students are involved
in their care because of the deliberate lies and deception.
A survey of medical students found that 100% of them
had been introduced to patients as 'doctor.'
As they go through training, there's an "Erosion in Medical Students'
Attitudes About Telling Patients They Are Students."
As the students go through their medical training, their sense of responsibility
to inform patients they are just students is found to decrease,
especially if the opportunity exists to perform an invasive procedure.
That may be why medical students seem to develop this
"don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to seeking consent
for pelvic examinations on anesthetized patients.
More than a third of 1,600 medical students surveyed across the country
strongly disagreed with the statement, "Hospitals should obtain
explicit permission for student involvement in pelvic exams."
After all, doctors argue, performing a pelvic examination is no more intimate
than placing one's hands inside a surgical incision.
Sticking your fingers in a woman's vagina is no more intimate
than an ophthalmologist looking into the back of your eye,
and any claim to the contrary is just another attempt to justify
the obsession with political correctness.
"Personally," said one medical school professor, "I would prefer to see
a new generation of well-trained doctors . . . rather than a nation
of women whose vaginas are protected from battery by medical students."
The national survey concluded:
"Patients admitted to teaching hospitals do not, by the mere act of admission,
relinquish their rights as human beings."
Is it possible women just don't care?
Studies show that up to 100% of women asked said they would want
to know that vaginal examinations were being done by medical students.
Okay, since patients care deeply about being asked,
why can't we at least ask their permission?
"We can't ask women, " medical school faculty replied.
"If we do, they might say no."