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August 26, 2005

Ethics of Convenience

Seems a couple of the authors of the much-publicized fetal pain study have interesting backgrounds that weren't so publicized.

One author, Susan J. Lee, a medical student, is also a lawyer who for eight months from 1999 to 2000 worked in the legal department at Naral, an abortion rights group. Another author, Dr. Eleanor A. Drey, performs abortions and is medical director of an abortion clinic.

Somehow they forgot to mention this to the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, who printed the study. Why not, you might ask?

In interviews yesterday, Dr. Drey and Ms. Lee said they did not regard their work as a conflict of interest and so it had not occurred to them to report it to the journal editors.

It's not a problem because, you know, they're completely objective scientists and their beliefs could never influence their findings. [/sarcasm]

To be fair, neither have tried to actively conceal their backgrounds. OTOH, neither did they actively disclose them.

But they should have.

Posted by Rita at August 26, 2005 03:28 AM

Comments

Why am I utterly unsurprised?

Posted by: Craig [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 26, 2005 04:27 AM

I was shocked, shocked I tell you....ok, no I wasn't.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 26, 2005 04:34 AM

Also of interest is their study is a compilation of other studies. They could have chosen a few studies which would have agree with their hypothesis and tossed out a whole bunch which didn't.

Posted by: Valerie at August 26, 2005 09:57 AM

Thanks Valerie, I didn't realize that. That makes it even more suspect, IMHO.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 27, 2005 03:05 AM