Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No

In popular culture, whistleblowers are conscience-driven heroes who triumph against the odds. Yet when research abuses occur, medical institutions deny wrongdoing even when it is glaringly obvious, and rarely do mistreated research subjects or their families get any real justice. Whistleblowing is the exception, not the rule. In many scandals, doctors and other staff members remain silent for years while unwitting research subjects are abused. If abuses do come to light, the researchers are usually protected by the medical establishment while the whistleblowers are punished.

Find Carl's books, as well as others like them, in the new Consilium Scientific library: https://consilium-scientific.org/libr...

Seminar: 00:00
Questions and Answers: 42:36

Comments in chat:

[email protected]: An Enemy of the People is currently playing in London with Matt Smith
[email protected]: Another great book, this on Theranos: "Bad Blood" by John Carreyrou, Knopf
Johanna Ryan: Question: A lot of medical research is now done by private doctor-entrepreneurs, recruited and “monitored” by Contract Research Organizations working for drug companies.  Academic authors present and vouch for research they did not do, on patients they never saw (and often via articles drafted by others).  Who will fight for research integrity in these circumstances?
Johanna Ryan: Most of those firms offer to represent "qui tam" plaintiffs under the False Claims Act. That law levies penalties for defrauding the government, and the plaintiffs can claim a share of the savings. But if no financial fraud on the G, then no payout.

Takeo Saio: My friend, Ryu Young-joon, a pathologist and professor at Kangwon National University College of Medicine, whistleblowed in the famous stemcell scandal of Hwang Woo-suk. https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/arti...
Alan Cassels: Carl, After doing your book tours and so on do you think your book will help bend the moral arc of the universe (when it comes to medical experimentation) towards justice?