In the face of an obdurate disease, the Mission to Lepers made a virtue out of "saving" children from leprosy and from paganism by separating them from their parents so that they became a source of publicity, sponsorship, and fund-raising. This policy transformed a benevolent work of mercy into a professional one, for it soon became clear that children separated from their parents did not develop leprosy. Consequently, the asylum became a site where scientific conclusions were made about the transmission of the disease, and the authority of the mission was enhanced at international medical conferences. This nascent professionalism became sufficient for the Philippines to also be persuaded to remove children from their leprosy-infected parents. In turn, Culion-based research on the observations of children ensured the authority of the American and Philippine doctors in informing decisions made by the League of Nations and later the World Health Organization.
BT - Bulletin of the history of medicine C1 -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29961715?dopt=Abstract
DO - 10.1353/bhm.2018.0027 IS - 2 J2 - Bull Hist Med LA - eng N2 -In the face of an obdurate disease, the Mission to Lepers made a virtue out of "saving" children from leprosy and from paganism by separating them from their parents so that they became a source of publicity, sponsorship, and fund-raising. This policy transformed a benevolent work of mercy into a professional one, for it soon became clear that children separated from their parents did not develop leprosy. Consequently, the asylum became a site where scientific conclusions were made about the transmission of the disease, and the authority of the mission was enhanced at international medical conferences. This nascent professionalism became sufficient for the Philippines to also be persuaded to remove children from their leprosy-infected parents. In turn, Culion-based research on the observations of children ensured the authority of the American and Philippine doctors in informing decisions made by the League of Nations and later the World Health Organization.
PY - 2018 SP - 261 EP - 286 T2 - Bulletin of the history of medicine TI - Leprosy's untainted child. VL - 92 SN - 1086-3176 ER -