EPISODE · Nov 14, 2025 · 1H 11M
Ep 40-Who Owns The Body: The One Who Cuts Or The One Who Bleeds?
from Doctoring the Truth · host Jenne Tunnell and Amanda House
Send us Fan MailA knife that could take a leg in thirty seconds, a theater packed with spectators, and a patient who never got a say—our journey begins with Robert Liston, the unrivaled speed surgeon of the nineteenth century. From there we follow the messy, gripping path from pain-as-proof to consent-as-right, revealing how anesthesia muted screams without restoring voice, and how courts, scandals, and patient advocates forced medicine to listen.If this conversation challenged your thinking, share it with someone facing a medical decision, subscribe for more deep dives, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then tell us: what would you want disclosed before any operation?ReferencesListon, Robert. Practical Surgery. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1837.Lister, Joseph. “On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery.” The Lancet 90, no. 2299 (1867): 353–356.Dickens, Charles. Household Words. Vol. 1, 1850. (Contains Dickens’s descriptions of Victorian surgical observation).Wakley, Thomas. The Lancet, 1823–1850 editorial campaigns against surgical exploitation and hospital abuses.Morton, W. T. G., and J. C. Warren. “First Public Demonstration of Ether Anesthesia.” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 35 (1846): 309–317.Percival, Thomas. Medical Ethics; or, A Code of Institutes and Precepts, Adapted to the Professional Conduct of Physicians and Surgeons. Manchester: S. Russell, 1803.Historical and Academic TextsPorter, Roy. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.Loudon, Irvine. Medical Care and the General Practitioner 1750–1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.Stanley, Liz. The Industrial Revolution and the Body: Labor, Injury, and Anatomy. London: Routledge, 2001.Pernick, Martin S. A Calculus of Suffering: Pain, Professionalism, and Anesthesia in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.Duffin, Jacalyn. History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.Reiser, Stanley Joel. Medicine and the Reign of Technology. Cambridge University Press, 1978.Haeger, Knut. The Illustrated History of Surgery. London: Harold Starke, 1988.Seldon, Anthony, and Joanna Pappworth. Human Guinea Pigs: Experimentation on Man. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.Lawrence, Susan C. Charitable Knowledge: Hospital Pupils and Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Legal Cases and CommentariesSchloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, 211 N.Y. 125, 105 N.E. 92 (1914).Salgo v. Leland Stanford Jr. Board of Trustees, 154 Cal. App. 2d 560, 317 P.2d 170 (Cal. Ct. App. 1957).Canterbury v. Spence, 464 F.2d 772 (D.C. Cir. 1972).Mohr v. Williams, 104 N.W. 12 (Minn. 1905) — early ruling on unauthorized surgery.Pratt v. Davis, 118 Ill. App. 161 (1905) — affirmed right to bodily autonomy.Beauchamp, Tom L., and James F. Childress. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 8th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.Faden, Ruth R., and Tom L. Beauchamp. A History and Theory of Informed Consent. Oxford: Oxford Un Support the showDon't miss a (heart) beat! Check out our Instagram @doctoringthetruthpodcast and email us your Medical Mishaps at [email protected]. Join us on Facebook at Doctoring the Truth, and TikTok @doctoring the truth. Don't forget to download, rate, and review so we can keep bringing you more exciting content each week!Stay safe, and stay suspicious...trust, after all, is a delicate thing!Don't forget to check out these fantastic discounts using promo code STAYSUSPICIOUS from our sponsors at:*thecuminclub.com for 30% off*https://strongcoffeecompany.com/discount/STAYSUSPICIOUS for 20% off*www.handful.com for 30% off *www.standshoes.com for 15% off*www.oldglory.com for 15% off*www.getcheeky.com for 30% off*https://mollybz.com for 10% off *www.RSRVCollective.com for 30% off *klearprotein.com for 20% off*www.torrain.org for 15% off*www.cozyearth.com for 21% off* www.yarokhair.com for 15% off *www.loveindus.com for 21% off ...
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Send us Fan Mail A knife that could take a leg in thirty seconds, a theater packed with spectators, and a patient who never got a say—our journey begins with Robert Liston, the unrivaled speed surgeon of the nineteenth century. From there we follow the messy, gripping path from pain-as-proof to consent-as-right, revealing how anesthesia muted screams without restoring voice, and how courts, scandals, and patient advocates forced medicine to listen. If this conversation challenged your think...
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Ep 40-Who Owns The Body: The One Who Cuts Or The One Who Bleeds?
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