In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads
connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.

This is the story of a 17 year old enslaved girl - Anarcha - and the other enslaved women who gave birth to the field of gynaecology. The year is 1845 and Anarcha has just had a baby. But there’s a problem. She is in great pain and her doctor, J Marion Sims, believes nothing can be done about it - at least at first.

She has developed a vesico-vaginal fistula, a hole between her bladder and her vagina. This leaves her incontinent and in the doctor’s words: “aside from death, this was about the worst accident that could have happened to the poor young girl”. In search of a cure Anarcha would be experimented on 30 times. Julia and Adam hear from Dr Deirdre Cooper Owens, a professor at the University of Connecticut and the author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynaecology.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw
Producers: Simona Rata and Rufaro Faith Mazarura
Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4.