Wakefield on Medical Ethics and Children: “I’m perfectly willing to accept my understanding was wrong”
April 11, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Today at a hearing before the General Medical Council, Dr. Andrew Wakefield—-the doctor who is at the center of the controversy over the MMR vaccine—admitted that he had what the BBC terms a “poor grasp of the medical ethics surrounding work on children.” Dr. Wakefield faces being struck off the medical register in regard to “serious professional misconduct relating to investigations undertaken on 12 children between 1996 and 1998.” Among the allegations is a charge that he took blood samples from children at his son’s birthday party; the children were paid £5.
According to the BBC, Dr. Wakefield said:
“I’m perfectly willing to accept my understanding was wrong.”
While Dr. Wakefield had received “parental consent,” he should have obtained clearance from an ethics committee; he says that “was not aware of ‘detailed guidance’ on the treatment of children provided by the British Paediatric Association.” More details about the specific charges here.
The Declaration of Helsinki is the controlling document for human experimentation.
http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm
It is not a harmless oversight to perform research on humans without proper regard to their human rights.
See “Ethical Issues”
“The MMR-autism scare- our story so far”
Brian Deer
http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-summary.htm
Seems to be no shortage of human-subject ethics statements and guidelines.
It seems that guidelines could have been obtained from The British Paediatric Association.
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (formerly The British Paediatric Association) (1992) Guidelines for Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Children. BPA Publications, London.
from
http://www.britsoc.co.uk/user_doc/Appendix_Statement%20of%20Ethical%20Practice_March%2005.doc
daedalus2u said:
>It is not a harmless oversight to perform >research on humans without proper regard to >their human rights.
Especially vulnerable populations such as children!
The birthday party setting still really flummoxes me.
What Wakefield has demonstrated is that he doen’t have sufficient ethical judgment to do research involving humans subjects. He assumed he did without checking any of the literature on human subject research. That literature is voluminous, easily available and unambiguous.
Someone with that level of hubris, that they don’t need to check the literature before doing experiments on humans is not qualified to be a researcher or a doctor.
He should be struck-off.
The hearing for Wakefield has been adjourned according to the Austin American-Statesman; a ruling is not expected till the end of the year.