Vanderbilt Apology

[Mark Steinbuchel <markst@ONC.hhsys.org>]

A press release included a copy of a formal, written apology from the 
Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor.  Informed consent is the key issue, as it was 
when the Public Health Service failed to tell the Alabama blacks when they 
did not treat them for syhpillis.  If you do human experimentation, you 
must use an IRB and overt informed consent of all possible consequences. I 
though it was a well worded and sincere apology on behalf of the Vandy 
administrative decision more than 30 years ago.  A key point was that this 
was an Oak Ridge funded nutritional uptake experiment using isotope tagged 
iron on PREGNANT WOMEN when they were only told of the "iron supplement" 
not that it had a tracer to watch how it metabolized.  In the televised 
press conference, one mother who lost her child to cancer said that this 
formal apology meant more to her than any cash settlement.
Mark Steinbuchel
Huntsville Hosptial System
Huntsville, Alabama
steinbuc@traveller.com
On Tue, 28 Jul 1998 08:59:43 -0500 (CDT) DamschenGA <damschenga@mkf.ornl.gov> 
wrote:
> I heard a news report... Vanderbilt University had
> settled a multi-million dollar claim with some women who had been involved
> in iron tracer studies during the 40's without their knowledge/consent..report
> said that the judge made the Vanderbilt attorney turn face the women and
> read a prepared statement to the effect that it was the proper time and the
> "right thing to do" to apologize to the women for the suffering they had
> been put through as a result of the experimentation...Was this really 
what was said or just journalistic license?