Getting ethics into practice: Comparing Alder Hey with Tuskegee is not helpful

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7464.513-a

BMJ 2004;329:513 (28 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7464.513-a

Letter

Getting ethics into practice

Comparing Alder Hey with Tuskegee is not helpful

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—I am troubled by the moral equivalence impliedin the editorial by Parker, who refers to several high profilescandals that have occurred in medicine.¹ Citing an instancewhere prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis alongwith the Alder Hey matter raises a very important point aboutthe way in which moral and ethical issues are portrayed.

Remembering Tuskegee and makingamends, 1997

Credit: GREG GIBSON/AP PHOTO

I agree that the Alder Hey matter was wrong, that it shouldn'thave happened, and that numerous relatives were profoundly upset.However, I cannot accept that such a close moral and ethicalcomparison is made with the deliberate infection of live humanbeings in the way implied and that these two matters can beincluded in the same sentence. Readers are invited (wrongly,I believe) to make the connection, and this comparison addsfurther weight in the mind of the reader . . . [Full text of this article]

Peter J Waugh, medical inspector

Health and Safety Executive, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 3BE znm33@dial.pipex.com