Terrifying & True | The Man With a Hole in His Stomach: Beaumont’s Human Experiments
Episode 41 min 46s

Terrifying & True | The Man With a Hole in His Stomach: Beaumont’s Human Experiments

Alexis St. Martin survived an 1822 gunshot wound with an opening into his stomach. William Beaumont used it to study digestion, lowering food on threads into a living man's body. Terrifying & True examines the medical breakthrough and the unequal relationship behind it: a surgeon who was also an employer, a labor contract requiring experiments, and a patient who negotiated, refused, and repeatedly left. Follow the history beyond the lurid image of a man with a hole in his stomach. When a discovery depends on someone's pain and economic dependence, how freely can that person consent?

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