Getting ethics into practice
http://www.100md.com
《英国医生杂志》
EDITOR—I thank Curtis for identifying a factual mistake in the text. The Tuskegee study did not entail people being deliberately infected with syphilis: it was an observational study of 600 men, some of whom had syphilis. The study is often cited as an important example of unethical research practice because despite the discovery of an intervention for syphilis in the 1950s (penicillin) the men in this study were not offered this treatment until the study came to an end in 1972. This was an editorial error.1
In response to Waugh, I mentioned both Alder Hey and Tuskegee in the editorial not because they are comparable in seriousness but because they are both examples of "scandals" in medicine that have led to a debate about ethics and ethical practice. I share Waugh's concerns about the subsequent reaction to the revelations about practice at Alder Hey, but this was not the focus of my editorial.
Michael J Parker, reader in medical ethics
University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF michael.parker@ethox.ox.ac.uk
Competing interests: None declared.
References
Corrections and clarifications. BMJ 2004;329: 384. (14 August.)
In response to Waugh, I mentioned both Alder Hey and Tuskegee in the editorial not because they are comparable in seriousness but because they are both examples of "scandals" in medicine that have led to a debate about ethics and ethical practice. I share Waugh's concerns about the subsequent reaction to the revelations about practice at Alder Hey, but this was not the focus of my editorial.
Michael J Parker, reader in medical ethics
University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF michael.parker@ethox.ox.ac.uk
Competing interests: None declared.
References
Corrections and clarifications. BMJ 2004;329: 384. (14 August.)