In 1984 the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology published a paper that would initiate an investigation into one of the greatest medical scandals of the late twentieth century. Titled "The Invasive Potential of Carcinoma in Situ of the Cervix", it discussed the results of an experiment that had been run at the National Women’s Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, since 1955. The experiment looked at the natural history of cervical carcinoma in situ (CIS) – in other words, what happens if no treatment is initiated in a condition suspected (when the experiment began) to lead to cervical cancer. The paper divided participants into two groups, one that had negative results after biopsy or treatment, and one smaller group that continued to test positive. This second group had a significant rate of cervical cancer; some of these women were followed for twenty-five years without treatment, and in only 5% did the disease spontaneously resolve. For the other 95%, outcomes ranged from positive but localised results to metastatic disease and death. The authors said these results were in contrast with other, earlier papers about the experiment. After much research, Sandra Coney, one-time editor of a NZ feminist magazine, and Phyllida Bunkle, a women’s studies lecturer, wrote an article about the experiment, exposing the unauthorised research performed by one prominent gynaecologist in support of his belief that CIS was not associated with cervical cancer. Professor Herbert Green, a physician of considerable influence and power throughout New Zealand, persisted in his belief despite increasingly convincing proof of a progressive connection between the two conditions, never sought permission from his patients, or even told them what he was doing.

A first-hand account by one of the doctors who exposed the truth at National Women's Hospital. Jones sets the record straight with his personal story: a story of the unnecessary suffering of countless women, a story of professional arrogance and misplaced loyalties, and a story of doctors in denial of the truth.

In the late 1980s, a national outcry followed the publication of Sandra Coney and Phillida Bunkle's 'Unfortunate Experiment' article in Metro magazine about the treatment of carcinoma in situ at National Women's Hospital. The article prompted a commission of inquiry led by Judge Silvia Cartwright which indicted the practices of doctors at the hospital and led to lawsuits, censure, a national screening programme and a revolution in doctor-patient relations in New Zealand. In this carefully researched book, medical historian Dr Linda Bryder provides a detailed analysis of the treatment of carcinoma in situ at National Women's since the 1950s, an assessment of international medical practice and a history of the women's health movement. She tackles a number of key questions. Was treatment at National Women's an 'unfortunate experiment'? Was it out of line with international norms? Did Herb Green and his colleagues care more for science than for their patients? Did women die as a result? And what were the sources of the scandal that erupted?

The Cervical Cancer Inquiry and its report (known as the Cartwright Report) were momentous events in the recent history of New Zealand. Critical issues were at stake: matters of life and death; the life's work of leaders within the medical profession; professional reputations; public trust in the profession, and its own sense of self-worth. After seven months of considering evidence, Judge Silvia Cartwright, assisted by expert medical and legal teams and drawing on specialist opinion from all over the world, concluded that Associate Professor Herbert Green had been conducting unethical research at National Women's Hospital, and that many women had been affected. This book of essays recounts some of this history. Several of the contributors were participants: Clare Matheson writes as one of the patients; Professor Charlotte Paul was a medical adviser to the Inquiry; Sandra Coney (with Phillida Bunkle) wrote the article leading to the Inquiry; Dr Ron Jones was one of the three authors of the 1984 article, using data from Green's own patients, that demonstrated that carcinoma of the cervix had a significant invasive potential. Other authors are specialists in other fields: Professor Alastair Campbell and Associate Professor Joanna Manning comment from the perspective of medical ethics and medical law respectively; Ron Paterson is the Health and Disability Commissioner; Jan Crosthwaite is a philosopher with expertise in medical ethics. These essays not only review the history but also document how the Cartwright Report changed the whole landscape of medical practice and biomedical research in this country, leading to far better protections for both patients and research participants. Yet despite all the regulatory changes, the most significant change to which the Cartwright Report contributed was attitudinal - a rejection of medical paternalism and a new expectation that patients would be treated as partners in their care. The findings of the Report remain controversial and continue to be debated to this day. This book provides a perspective on the current debates and helps place them in context. As Clare Matheson (one of Green's patients) said: 'We must never forget lest it happen again'. Contributors include: Alastair Campbell, Silvia Cartwright, Sandra Coney, Jan Crosthwaite, Ron Jones, Joanna Manning, Clare Matheson, Ron Paterson, Charlotte Paul.

In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service recruited 623 African American men from Macon County, Alabama, for a study of "the effects of untreated syphilis in the Negro male." For the next 40 years -- even after the development of penicillin, the cure for syphilis -- these men were denied medical care for this potentially fatal disease. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was exposed in 1972, and in 1975 the government settled a lawsuit but stopped short of admitting wrongdoing. In 1997, President Bill Clinton welcomed five of the Study survivors to the White House and, on behalf of the nation, officially apologized for an experiment he described as wrongful and racist. In this book, the attorney for the men, Fred D. Gray, describes the background of the Study, the investigation and the lawsuit, the events leading up to the Presidential apology, and the ongoing efforts to see that out of this painful and tragic episode of American history comes lasting good.

From the courtrooms of Nuremberg to the battlefields of the Gulf War, Undue Risk exposes a variety of government policies and specific cases, includingplutonium injections to unwilling hospital patients, and even the attempted recruitment of Nazi medical scientists bythe U.S. government after World War II.

In this major history, Linda Bryder traces the annals of National Women's Hospital over half a century in order to tell a wider story of reproductive health. She uses the varying perspectives of doctors, nurses, midwives, consumer groups, and patients to show how together their dialog shaped the nature of motherhood and women's health in 20th-century New Zealand. Natural childbirth and rooming in, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, sterilization and abortion: women's health and reproduction went through a revolution in the 20th century as scientific advances confronted ethical and political dilemmas. In New Zealand, the major site for this revolution was National Women's Hospital. Established in Auckland in 1946, with a purpose-built building that opened in 1964, National Women's was the home of medical breakthroughs scandals. This chronicle covers them all.