Frances Rix Ames (; 20 April 1920 – 11 November 2002) was a South African

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

, psychiatrist, and human rights activist, best known for leading the medical ethics inquiry into the death of anti-apartheid activist

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known a ...

, who died from medical neglect after being

tortured Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts car ...

in police custody. When the South African Medical and Dental Council (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 South African Supreme Court, where she eventually won the case in 1985. Born in Pretoria and raised in poverty in Cape Town, Ames became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

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 medicinal use. She headed the neurology department at

Groote Schuur Hospital Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where the first human-to-huma ...

before retiring in 1985, but continued to lecture at Valkenberg and Alexandra Hospital. After

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

was dismantled in 1994, Ames testified at the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

about her work on the "Biko doctors" medical ethics inquiry. In 1999,

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

awarded Ames the Star of South Africa, the country's highest civilian award, in recognition of her work on behalf of human rights.

Early life

Ames was born at Voortrekkerhoogte 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

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, was also a nurse. Ames never knew her father, who abandoned his wife and three daughters.van der Unde, Ina (November 1995)
Interview: A woman of substance
. ''South African Medical Journal'', 85 (11): 1202–1203. With her mother unable to care for her family, Ames spent part of her childhood in a Catholic orphanage where she was stricken with

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over severa ...

. Her mother later rejoined the family and moved them to Cape Town, where Ames attended the Rustenburg School for Girls.Bateman, Chris (January 2003)
Frances Ames – Human Rights Champion
. ''South African Medical Journal'', 93 (1): 14–15. Retrieved 15 January 2015. She enrolled at the

(UCT) medical school where she received her MBChB degree in 1942.Dent, David M.; Gonda Perez (June 2010)
The place and the person: Named buildings, rooms and places on the campus of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town
. ''South African Medical Journal'', 100 (6):4–5. Retrieved 15 January 2015.

Medical career

In Cape Town, Ames interned at

; she also worked in the

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...

region as a general practitioner. She earned her MD degree in 1964 from UCT, the first woman to do so.Shaw, Gerald (21 November 2014)
Frances Ames
. ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 15 January 2015. Ames became head of the neurology department at Groote Schuur Hospital in 1976.Breier, Mignonne; Angelique Wildschut (2006). ''Doctors in a Divided Society: The Profession and Education of Medical Practitioners in South Africa''. HSRC Press. p. 61. ."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. She was made an associate professor in 1978. Ames retired in 1985, but continued to work part-time at both Valkenberg 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 ''British Medical Journal'', Ames "was never made a full professor, and believed that this was because she was a woman."

Biko affair

South African anti-apartheid activist

, who had formerly studied medicine at the

University of Natal Medical School The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westvill ...

, was detained by

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, S ...

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 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.Benatar, Solomon R.; David Benatar (1 June 2012).
From Medical Manners to Moral Reasoning: An Historical Overview of Bioethics in the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences
''South African Medical Journal''. Grundy, Trevor (27 November 2002)
Frances Ames; Human rights activist who battled for justice after the death of Steve Biko in South Africa
. ''The Herald''. Retrieved 29 January 2015.Myser, Catherine (2011). "The Social Functions of Bioethics in South Africa". ''Bioethics Around the Globe''. Oxford University Press. pp. 137–139. . 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 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 Trefor Jenkins and Phillip Tobias of the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

; a second case was filed by Dumisani Mzana, Yosuf Veriava of Coronationville Hospital, and Tim Wilson of Alexandra Health Centre. As Ames and the small group of physicians pursued an inquiry into members of their own profession, Ames was called a

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

.Baldwin-Ragaven, Laurel; Leslie London; Jeanelle De Gruchy (1999). ''An Ambulance of the Wrong Colour: Health Professionals, Human Rights and Ethics in South Africa''. Juta and Company Ltd. pp. 91–100. . 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 ndalso attempted to silence and discredit those doctors who stood up for human rights and who demanded disciplinary action against their colleagues." 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 Benatar & Benatar 2012, the case "played an important role in sensitising the medical profession to medical ethical issues in South Africa."

Cannabis research

Ames studied the

effects of cannabis The effects of cannabis are caused by chemical compounds in the cannabis plant, including 113 different cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 120 terpenes, which allow its drug to have various psychological and physiological e ...

in 1958, publishing her work in '' The British Journal of Psychiatry'' as "A clinical and metabolic study of acute intoxication with ''Cannabis sativa'' and its role in the model psychoses". Her work is cited extensively throughout the cannabis literature. She opposed the

War on Drugs The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, ...

and was a proponent of the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, particularly for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Ames observed first-hand how cannabis (known as ''dagga'' in South Africa) relieved spasm in MS patients and helped paraplegics in the spinal injuries ward of her hospital.Froman, Colin (2005). ''The Barbershop Quartet: A Surgical Saga''. Trafford Publishing. . She continued to study the effects of cannabis in the 1990s, publishing several articles about cannabis-induced

euphoria Euphoria ( ) is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Certain natural rewards and social activities, such as aerobic exercise, laughter, listening to or making music and dan ...

and the effects of cannabis on the brain.

Personal life

Ames was married to editorial writer David Castle of the ''

Cape Times The ''Cape Times'' is an English-language morning newspaper owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in Cape Town, South Africa. the newspaper had a daily readership of 261 000 and a circulation of 34 523. By the fourth quarter of ...

'' 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, ''Mothering in an Apartheid Society'' (2002).

Death

Ames struggled with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

for some time. Before her death, she told an interviewer, "I shall go on until I drop."Tale of two mothers in a divided society
. Monday Monthly. University of Cape Town, 21 (2): 28 May 2002. She continued to work for UCT as a part-time lecturer at Valkenberg Hospital until six weeks before she died at home in

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

on 11 November 2002.Passing of UCT legend Frances Ames
. Monday Monthly. University of Cape Town, 21 (35): 15 November 2002. Representing UCT's psychiatry department, Greg McCarthy gave the eulogy at the funeral.McCarthy, Greg (January 2003)
Frances Rix Ames
. SAMJ Forum. ''South African Medical Journal'', 93 (1): 48. Retrieved 15 January 2015. 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.

Legacy

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 ''

South African Medical Journal The ''South African Medical Journal'' is a monthly peer-reviewed open-access medical journal which has been published in South Africa since 1884. It is sponsored by the South African Medical Association and published by the association's publishin ...

'' notes that "Frances Ames led by conviction and example" and history eventually justified her action in the Biko affair. 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 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".van Niekerk, J. P. (January 2003)
The power of one good person
. ''South African Medical Journal'', 93 (1): 1. Ames testified during the medical hearings at the

in 1997. Archbishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbish ...

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,

awarded Ames the Order of the Star of South Africa in 1999, the highest civilian award in the country.Sidley, Pat (7 December 2002)
Frances Ames
. ''BMJ: British Medical Journal'', 325 (7376): 1365. Retrieved 15 January 2015.

Selected publications

*''Mothering in an Apartheid Society'' (2002)