Published 7 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a707
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a707

News

Southall cleared of conducting trial without parents’ consent

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

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

The paediatrician David Southall and two colleagues were cleared by the General Medical Council last week of experimenting on babies without their parents’ informed consent.

Dr Southall, 59, and the consultant paediatricians Martin Samuels and Andrew Spencer were found not guilty of serious professional misconduct when the GMC hearing, which had been going on for two months, was halted after their lawyers successfully submitted that there was no case to answer.

The case concerned a long running controversy over a research project that involved placing premature babies with respiratory problems in low pressure incubators to help them breathe unaided.

Carl and Deborah Henshall, whose baby daughters took part in the continuous negative extrathoracic pressure trial, complained to the GMC that they were unaware it was an experimental treatment and denied that they had ever properly consented.

Their daughters, Stacey and Sofie, were placed in the incubators at North Staffordshire Hospital . . . [Full text of this article]


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