The Transformative Power of X-Rays in U.S. Scientific & Medical Litigation: Mechanical Objectivity in Smith v. Grant (1896)

Perspectives on Science 21, No. 1 (2013): 23-57

Posted: 23 Jan 2013

See all articles by Daniel Goldberg

Daniel Goldberg

East Carolina University - School of Medicine

Date Written: January 22, 2013

Abstract

The paper locates the struggle to mobilize and regulate the immense social and cultural power inherent in X-rays’ capacity to remotely anatomize the living body power within the discursive space of the turn-of-the-century American courtroom. The paper pioneers use of extant court records in the seminal case of Smith v. Grant, the first American medical malpractice case in which an injured plaintiff successfully introduced X-ray evidence against a physician. The paper demonstrates how X-ray images catalyzed crucial changes in the American law of scientific and medical evidence and facilitated a novel regime for their regulation that continues to reverberate in the present.

Suggested Citation

Goldberg, Daniel, The Transformative Power of X-Rays in U.S. Scientific & Medical Litigation: Mechanical Objectivity in Smith v. Grant (1896) (January 22, 2013). Perspectives on Science 21, No. 1 (2013): 23-57, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2205093

Daniel Goldberg (Contact Author)

East Carolina University - School of Medicine ( email )

600 Moye Boulevard
Greenville, NC 27858
United States

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