Tuesday, October 10, 2006

 

First, do no harm

It could have occurred in any country. American doctors did this, most infamously in the Tuskegee experiments. Japanese doctors did it, and were rightly condemned for war crimes. But it's especially troubling that this story should come out of Israel: 02:41 10/10/2006 Four top doctors arrested over illegal human experimentation By Ran Reznik, Haaretz Correspondent Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera suspected of illegally experimenting on humans were arrested Monday. The national fraud squad has opened an investigation into the affair. The four are suspected of abuse, aggravated assault, causing death through negligence, fraud, forgery, breach of statutory duty, and disruption of legal proceedings. ... During one of the incidents described, twelve patients died either during the experiments or shortly after they took place... The ministry's investigation revealed that some of the patients were included in the experiments without providing their consent, while some of them suffered from severe mental damage, which prevented them from being legally capable of providing consent. According to the report, some of the tests did not even yield any medically or scientifically beneficial results. Furthermore, some of the experiments were conducted despite top doctors' warnings that they were illegal or unethical. .... According to the report, some doctors received promotions, both in their professional and academic careers, on the basis of the illegal tests. In some cases, the tests were used as the basis for research studies published in local and international medical journals. ...
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