In this article by Ruth Chadwick (14 August, pp 441-4) the author wrongly attributed to the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Bioethics a view on the difficulty of identifying individuals within the Icelandic database. It should have been attributed to the Ministry of Health and Social Security of Iceland. The ministry submitted a paper to the committee on bioethics, but its authorship was not apparent on the copy sent to Dr Chadwick.