Medical controversy and the historian: A New Zealand case study

2017 John C. Burnham Lecture in the History of Medicine/Science, "Medical controversy and the historian: A New Zealand case study," November 2, 2017, The Ohio State University Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital Auditorium, Columbus, Ohio.Professor Bryder's talk examines her own experience of being drawn unexpectedly into the public arena when she wrote A History of the "Unfortunate Experiment" at National Women's Hospital (Auckland University Press, 2009), a publication which detailed the treatment of carcinoma in situ patients at National Women's Hospital in New Zealand since the 1950s. After her book's publication, Bryder was praised by the scholarly community yet viciously attacked by others who questioned her professionalism and integrity, branding her as being on the side of the medical profession and against the 'victims'. Bryder places the events in their historical context and shows how she came to be, in one critics words, on the side of 'baddies'. She also discusses the debates which followed and concludes with some reflections about the responsibilities of historians and the value of history