First, view no harm: An examination of ethics in preserving medical photography

Abstract

Physicians and other healthcare professionals and organizations have used medical imagery – illustrations, diagrams, models, videos, and photography – for centuries, for educational, clinical, research, and marketing purposes. Once these images are no longer useful or outdated, they are either disposed, forgotten, or transferred to a suitable archival repository where they await secondary use. It is this secondary historical value that drives the archival endeavor, but for some materials, those that make us take pause, the value they add to future research and societal memory should be balanced against our concerns. In this case, privacy and empathy. While much medical imagery contains potentially sensitive and graphic subject matter, photographs and videos depicting real clinical patients pose a significant ethical question: How are archivists to proceed in preserving such intimate depictions of human pain and suffering or healing and joy? This poster presents a case study of my work processing the photograph collection of the Indiana University School of Medicine held at the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives. It uses existing scholarship across disciplines to examine the concepts of informed consent, patient privacy, the relationship between patient and provider, image ownership, and trauma-informed archival practice. Holding images of stereotactic brain surgery from the 1970s and infants in casts up to such ideas brings to question the value and harm in making these images accessible to researchers and how archivists can respect the dignity and autonomy of those depicted therein.