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BMJ No 7102 Volume 315 Letters Saturday 26 July 1997 Informed consent Informed consent is light years away for black African patients Editor, We wish to cross swords with Y K Seedat over the wild and presumptuous assertions in his commentary about testing subjects without their consent.(1) His piece is apt to mislead and presents a one sided picture for any doctor who has no idea of South African society. Seedat is professor of medicine at the University of Natal, an almost exclusively Asian and black medical school. This medical school's main hospital is King Edward VIII Hospital, a black hospital. We find it astounding that no mention is made of the racial breakdown of those tested anonymously for HIV without their consent. We assume that they were almost exclusively black African patients in social classes IV and V (black working class). As black doctors whose medical studies began at the University of Natal, we find Seedat's wild assertions insulting not only to black Africans but to humanity as a whole. His claim that there is no harm or injury to the subjects has never been tested. The subjects who were tested have never had any rights in South Africa and are forever grateful and indebted to anyone with a white coat and a stethoscope-anyone in authority. Our experience with South Africa during apartheid and since its abolition suggests that true informed consent as part of ethics is light years away for black African patients. Although we are British medical practitioners, we are South African nationals, and we find it unacceptable that black South African patients become subjects of dubious laboratory tests without their knowledge for the benefit of doctors and other races. S W P Mhlongo General practitioner St Raphaels Way Medical Centre, London NW10 0NU G V Mdingi General practitioner Sandringham Practice, London E8 2PG References 1 Bhagwanjee S, Muckart DJJ, Jeena PM, Moodley P. Does HIV status influence the outcome of patients admitted to a surgical intensive care unit? A prospective double blind study. [With commentaries by R Kale, S Bhagwanjee et al, and Y K Seedat.] BMJ 1997;314:1077-84. (12 April.) Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline