The Ethics and Politics of Human Experimentation, by Paul M. McNeill

...McNeill's book raises some very important questions about the ways in which a society comes to terms with the fact that the practice of medicine is more closely linked with experimentation than ever before. That often puts the doctor-patient relation into a new setting. We have registered our objection to McNeill's tendency to see that relationship, where experimentation is involved, in an adversarial form: there are, we must repeat, more than two sides to this argument, and the medical scientist's commitment is not only to truth at any cost any more than the medical practitioner's is to treatment in all circumstances. Objections do not mean that we cannot learn from this book: on the contrary they may help us to sharpen our perceptions of what should happen. Fair-mindedness would suggest that failure to fulfill expectations is nothing like as widespread or for that matter incurable as McNeill's polemical tone might lead us to believe. When McNeill ceases to be the prosecuting counsel the true worth of his comments will become more apparent.