RE: a bit of perspective please
References
Nav Persaud, Heather Butts, Philip Berger. William Osler: saint in a “White man’s dominion”. CMAJ 2020;192:E1414-E1416.
1) Shaheen-Hussain S. No pedestal for medical pioneer Sir William Osler. Montreal Gazette; 10 Aug 2020, Accessed November15, 2020 at: https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-no-pedestal-for-medical-pioneer-sir-william-osler
2) Hogan DB. Sir William Osler - Fixed Terms, Fixed Ideas and "Fixed Period." Annals RCPSC. 1995; 28 (1):25-29.
3) Bliss M. William Osler: A Life in Medicine. University of Toronto Press. Toronto 2000.
4) Hogan DB, Clarfield AM. Osler and the Jewish people. CMAJ June 01, 1997; 156 (11): 1559-1562.
16 Nov 2020
To the editor,
re Persaud N et al. William Osler: saint in a “White man’s dominion”
While we can accept much of what the authors wrote in their recent piece about Osler, we found the conclusion unsettling: "As statues of once-revered individuals who participated in racist crimes are being removed around the world, we should change Osler’s place in medical curricula ..."
This recommendation smacks of presentism, which with respect to Osler has become widespread.1 As are we all, he was an imperfect human being and held attitudes now considered offensive but then prevalent, though not universal, in his social class. In addition to the sins of racism and sexism, Osler was also ageist by our standards.2 We should, however, consider the totality of his life. He advocated repeatedly for humanism in medicine, respecting the profession’s roots, and improving medical education. This is when he is referred to, if ever, in current medical curricula. We also dispute that he committed “racist crimes” as implied by Persaud et al. In researching his magisterial biography of Osler, Bliss wanted to uncover his failings3 but told one of us (AMC), "Believe me, I looked everywhere, in every source I could find” but to his surprise found little.
One must identify and eradicate prejudice and discrimination
in medicine. For example, we applaud the initiative of the University of Toronto in highlighting the most egregious example of racism in modern times, the behaviour of Nazi doctors. (: https://medicine.utoronto.ca/news/cultivating-moral-courage accessed November 15, 2020)
We agree that Osler was a man of his times who held sexist, ageist, and some but not all of the common racist views of his day.4 He deserves criticism on these points, but it is simplistic to conflate this with his full legacy.
Yours sincerely,
A. Mark Clarfield MD FRCPC
Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-sheva, Israel
Professor (adjunct), McGill University, Montreal,QC
David B. Hogan MD FRCPC
Professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary AB