An Investigative Journalist Looks at Medical Ethics

Abstract

Campbell criticizes Britain's medical and research community and the General Medical Council (GMC) for their lack of initiative in investigating the activities of Drs. James Sharp and Jabar Sultan. Sharp and Sultan conducted a series of highly-publicized but unethical and potentially harmful experiments with private patients that was eventually brought to public attention by Campbell's report and a BBC television program. Campbell questions why senior doctors, journal reviewers, and others failed to speak out against Sharp and Sultan or to alert the GMC, and why the GMC did not investigate the researchers independently. He warns that with the increasing commercialization of British medicine, legislation is needed to create a national regulatory body to oversee standards in the private sector. (KIE abstract)