379:. Her position at the university was threatened by her superiors and her colleagues asked her to drop the case. By pursuing the case against the Biko doctors, Ames received personal threats and risked her safety. Baldwin-Ragaven et al. note that the medical association "closed ranks in support of colleagues who colluded with the security police in the torture and death of detainees also attempted to silence and discredit those doctors who stood up for human rights and who demanded disciplinary action against their colleagues."
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785:."Frances Ames, first woman professor in the UCT Medical School, who was appointed professor of neurology in 1976." See also the "Truth & Reconciliation NRF project report", chapter 2, p. 72: "At UCT, however, a ceiling existed and it was not for years before a woman was appointed as full professor. Frances Ames seems to have been the first, appointed as Professor of Neurology in 1976." Note, Ames was never appointed as a full professor.
341:"In those days many district surgeons found themselves able to overlook regular police torture in prisons, to comply with police orders that conflicted with medically appropriate treatment, and at best to remain silent in the face of the obvious ethical challenges posed by the political climate. Few voiced their opposition to the systematic breaches of medical ethics occasioned by apartheid. Ames was one of the few."
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205:(SAMDC) declined to discipline the chief district surgeon and his assistant who treated Biko, Ames and a group of five academics and physicians raised funds and fought an eight-year legal battle against the medical establishment. Ames risked her personal safety and academic career in her pursuit of justice, taking the dispute to the
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region as a general practitioner. She earned her MD degree in 1964 from UCT, the first woman to do so. Ames became head of the neurology department at Groote Schuur
Hospital in 1976. She was made an associate professor in 1978. Ames retired in 1985, but continued to work part-time at both Valkenberg
513:
Ames's work on the Biko affair led to major medical reforms in South Africa, including the disbanding and replacement of the old apartheid-era medical organisations which failed to uphold the medical standards of the profession. According to van
Niekerk, "the most enduring lesson for South African
382:
After eight years, Ames won the case in 1985 when the South
African Supreme Court ruled in her favor. With Ames' help, the case forced the medical regulatory body to reverse their decision. The two doctors who treated Biko were finally disciplined and major medical reforms followed. According to
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security police on 18 August 1977 and held for 20 days. Sometime between 6 and 7 September, Biko was beaten and tortured into a coma. According to allegations by Ames and others, surgeon Ivor Lang, along with chief district surgeon
Benjamin Tucker, collaborated with the police and covered up the
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When the South
African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) along with the support of the Medical Association of South Africa (MASA), declined to discipline the district surgeons in Biko's death, two groups of physicians filed separate formal complaints with the SAMDC regarding the lack of
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on 11 November 2002. Representing UCT's psychiatry department, Greg McCarthy gave the eulogy at the funeral. Ames was cremated, and according to her wishes, her ashes were combined with hemp seed and dispersed outside of
Valkenberg Hospital where her memorial service was held.
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and
Alexandra Hospital as a lecturer in the UCT Psychiatry and Mental Health departments. In 1997, UCT made Ames an associate professor emeritus of neurology; she received an honorary doctorate in medicine from UCT in 2001. According to Pat Sidley of the
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professionalism shown by Biko's doctors. Both cases made their way to the South
African Supreme Court in an attempt to force the SAMDC to conduct a formal inquiry into the medical ethics of Lang and Tucker. One case was filed by Ames, along with
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medicine was the clarification of the roles of medical practitioners when there is a question of dual responsibilities. This is now embodied inter alia in the SAMA Code of
Conduct and in legal interpretations of doctors' responsibilities".
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honored Ames as "one of the handful of doctors who stood up to the apartheid regime and brought to book those doctors who had colluded with human rights abuse." In acknowledgement of her work on behalf of human rights in South Africa,
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in 1964. Ames studied the effects of cannabis on the brain and published several articles on the subject. Seeing the therapeutic benefits of cannabis on patients in her own hospital, she became an early proponent of legalization for
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South
African neurosurgeon Colin Froman referred to Ames as the "great and unorthodox protagonist for the medical use of marijuana many years before the current interest in its use as a therapeutic drug". J. P. van Niekerk of the
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in South Africa) relieved spasm in MS patients and helped paraplegics in the spinal injuries ward of her hospital. She continued to study the effects of cannabis in the 1990s, publishing several articles about cannabis-induced
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and they had four sons. She was 47 years old when her husband died unexpectedly in 1967. After her husband's death, Ames's housekeeper Rosalina helped raise the family. Ames wrote about the experience in her memoir,
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abuse, leading to Biko's death from his injuries on 12 September. According to Benatar & Benatar 2012, "there were clear ethical breaches on the part of the doctors who were responsible" for Biko.
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in Pretoria, South Africa, on 20 April 1920, to Frank and Georgina Ames, the second of three daughters. Her mother, who was raised in a Boer concentration camp by Ames' grandmother, a nurse in the
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1032:, 85 (12): 1268–1269. For secondary source coverage of this article, see: Sboros, Marika (10 January 1996). Curse or blessing-the flourishing dagga controversy.
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for some time. Before her death, she told an interviewer, "I shall go on until I drop." She continued to work for UCT as a part-time lecturer at
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Benatar & Benatar 2012, the case "played an important role in sensitising the medical profession to medical ethical issues in South Africa."
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From Medical Manners to Moral Reasoning: An Historical Overview of Bioethics in the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences
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The place and the person: Named buildings, rooms and places on the campus of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town
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With her mother unable to care for her family, Ames spent part of her childhood in a Catholic orphanage where she was stricken with
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awarded Ames the Star of South Africa, the country's highest civilian award, in recognition of her work on behalf of human rights.
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Born in Pretoria and raised in poverty in Cape Town, Ames became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree from the
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notes that "Frances Ames led by conviction and example" and history eventually justified her action in the Biko affair.
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and its role in the model psychoses". Her work is cited extensively throughout the cannabis literature. She opposed the
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As Ames and the small group of physicians pursued an inquiry into members of their own profession, Ames was called a
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Ought the Notion of ‘Informed Consent’ to be Cast in Stone? Vrm v The Health Professions Council of South Africa
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189:, psychiatrist, and human rights activist, best known for leading the medical ethics inquiry into the death of
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Frances Ames; Human rights activist who battled for justice after the death of Steve Biko in South Africa
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awarded Ames the Order of the Star of South Africa in 1999, the highest civilian award in the country.
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Doctors in a Divided Society: The Profession and Education of Medical Practitioners in South Africa
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An Ambulance of the Wrong Colour: Health Professionals, Human Rights and Ethics in South Africa
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315:, Ames "was never made a full professor, and believed that this was because she was a woman."
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before retiring in 1985, but continued to lecture at Valkenberg and Alexandra Hospital. After
253:, was also a nurse. Ames never knew her father, who abandoned his wife and three daughters.
260:. Her mother later rejoined the family and moved them to Cape Town, where Ames attended the
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Frances Ames talking about the poisoning of political activist Siphiwo Mtimkulu
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People who testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)
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Myser, Catherine (2011). "The Social Functions of Bioethics in South Africa".
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about her work on the "Biko doctors" medical ethics inquiry. In 1999,
813:. Monday Monthly. University of Cape Town, 21 (35): 15 November 2002.
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Baldwin-Ragaven, Laurel; Leslie London; Jeanelle De Gruchy (1999).
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1124:. Monday Monthly. University of Cape Town, 21 (2): 28 May 2002.
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Medical Mores, Judicial Review and the Last Days of Steve Biko
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as "A clinical and metabolic study of acute intoxication with
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Great Debates: Cannabis sativa – a plea for decriminalisation
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Castle, David; Murray, Robin; Deepak Cyril D’Souza (2009) .
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Ames was married to editorial writer David Castle of the
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185:; 20 April 1920 – 11 November 2002) was a South African
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The Steve Biko Affair: A Case Study in Medical Ethics
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825:Benatar, Solomon R.; David Benatar (1 June 2012).
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1095:Marijuana and Madness: Psychiatry and Neurobiology
517:Ames testified during the medical hearings at the
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420:Ames observed first-hand how cannabis (known as
662:, 325 (7376): 1365. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
773:Breier, Mignonne; Angelique Wildschut (2006).
229:was dismantled in 1994, Ames testified at the
372:, and Tim Wilson of Alexandra Health Centre.
209:, where she eventually won the case in 1985.
1218:White South African anti-apartheid activists
268:(UCT) medical school where she received her
197:, who died from medical neglect after being
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607:, 93 (1): 14–15. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
464:until six weeks before she died at home in
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429:and the effects of cannabis on the brain.
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735:, 100 (6):4–5. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
720:Dent, David M.; Gonda Perez (June 2010).
221:. She headed the neurology department at
1115:Tale of two mothers in a divided society
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905:. Oxford University Press. pp. 137–139.
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1074:The Barbershop Quartet: A Surgical Saga
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1184:South African Journal on Human Rights
1150:McLean, G.R.; Trefor Jenkins (2003).
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931:. Juta and Company Ltd. pp. 91–100.
594:Frances Ames – Human Rights Champion
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1253:South African women neuroscientists
993:van Niekerk, J. P. (January 2003).
872:Grundy, Trevor (27 November 2002).
847:Not Much Changed since Biko's Death
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616:van der Unde, Ina (November 1995).
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519:Truth and Reconciliation Commission
231:Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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804:Passing of UCT legend Frances Ames
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329:University of Natal Medical School
14:
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948:Biko doctors: Verdict 'lenient'.
749:Shaw, Gerald (21 November 2014).
540:Mothering in an Apartheid Society
446:Mothering in an Apartheid Society
398:The British Journal of Psychiatry
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570:South African Journal of Science
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411:therapeutic benefits of cannabis
395:in 1958, publishing her work in
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964:McCarthy, Greg (January 2003).
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647:Sidley, Pat (7 December 2002).
618:Interview: A woman of substance
592:Bateman, Chris (January 2003).
413:, particularly for people with
362:University of the Witwatersrand
302:In Cape Town, Ames interned at
1273:University of Cape Town alumni
1097:. Cambridge University Press;
1045:Bateman, Chris (August 2000).
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1:
1145:South African Medical Journal
1058:South African Medical Journal
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1006:South African Medical Journal
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629:South African Medical Journal
605:South African Medical Journal
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364:; a second case was filed by
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1258:South African whistleblowers
995:The power of one good person
887:. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
764:. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
660:BMJ: British Medical Journal
201:in police custody. When the
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572:. August 1999. 95 (8): 324.
409:and was a proponent of the
262:Rustenburg School for Girls
207:South African Supreme Court
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1164:Taitz, Jerold (May 1986).
1156:Developing World Bioethics
903:Bioethics Around the Globe
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294:Portrait of Frances Ames
71:Rondebosch, South Africa
1188:(subscription required)
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1076:. Trafford Publishing.
1047:Get pragmatic about pot
1024:7 February 2015 at the
855:(subscription required)
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654:10 January 2020 at the
623:3 February 2015 at the
313:British Medical Journal
266:University of Cape Town
214:University of Cape Town
82:University of Cape Town
16:South African physician
1072:Froman, Colin (2005).
1052:19 August 2014 at the
1000:14 August 2014 at the
727:16 August 2018 at the
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304:Groote Schuur Hospital
264:. She enrolled at the
223:Groote Schuur Hospital
111:Groote Schuur Hospital
1170:The Modern Law Review
879:29 April 2015 at the
777:. HSRC Press. p. 61.
631:, 85 (11): 1202–1203.
599:11 March 2018 at the
564:28 March 2017 at the
534:Selected publications
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1228:Cannabis researchers
971:4 March 2016 at the
756:24 June 2018 at the
521:in 1997. Archbishop
496:(begins at 00:01:18)
456:Ames struggled with
125:Star of South Africa
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1178:Veriava, F. (2004)
1137:Hoffenberg, Raymond
462:Valkenberg Hospital
393:effects of cannabis
368:, Yosuf Veriava of
115:Valkenberg Hospital
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415:multiple sclerosis
331:, was detained by
1263:Steve Biko affair
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107:Institutions
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53:South Africa
25:Frances Ames
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1208:2002 deaths
1203:1920 births
851:The Mercury
319:Biko affair
187:neurologist
1197:Categories
1082:1412047250
937:1919713484
911:0199749825
885:The Herald
783:0796921539
683:The Lancet
547:References
466:Rondebosch
440:Cape Times
346:Pat Sidley
325:Steve Biko
241:Early life
195:Steve Biko
41:1920-04-20
227:apartheid
193:activist
91:Exposing
78:Education
1118:Archived
1050:Archived
1034:The Star
1022:Archived
998:Archived
969:Archived
877:Archived
807:Archived
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725:Archived
703:54243407
652:Archived
621:Archived
597:Archived
562:Archived
458:leukemia
448:(2002).
427:euphoria
308:Transkei
199:tortured
49:Pretoria
417:(MS).
360:of the
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542:(2002)
473:Legacy
296:(SAMJ)
121:Awards
699:S2CID
452:Death
422:dagga
270:MBChB
1099:ISBN
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356:and
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