THE Government has been asked to explain why there was no follow-up
investigation on pregnant women who were repeatedly injected with
radioactive iodine more than 30 years ago.
Leader of the House, Mr Tony Newton, was asked for a statement last
night by SNP MP Margaret Ewing.
Her party leader, Mr Alex Salmond, said he was ''very disturbed'' by
the ethical questions raised by a television documentary last night
which featured one of his constituents.
''This is a matter of huge public concern,'' he said.
The constituent, Mrs Kathleen Morrison, 62, her sister, and three
friends were among 91 pregnant women who had radioactive iodine injected
into their thyroids.
Mrs Morrison has called for follow-up research following fears that
the children of those who volunteered for the experiment in Aberdeen
between 1962 and 1964 may be affected.
She suffered throat cancer seven years ago and, although she is not
claiming it was as a result of the research, she is concerned about the
effects of the work carried out at the Obstetric Medicine Research Unit,
then headed by obstetrician Sir Dugald Baird.
The experiment is understood to have been carried out as part of his
PhD thesis by Dr Aboul Khair, a Research Fellow in Therapeutics and
Pharmacology.
A subsequent experiment carried out in the same unit involving a
further 37 women, who were about to have abortions, revealed that unborn
children were more susceptible to radioactive iodine than had previously
been realised. However, it was known at that stage the foetus is at risk
from even low level radiation.
On the Channel 4 documentary, True Stories: Deadly Experiments,
produced by Twenty Twenty Television, Mrs Morrison, a retired teacher of
Cruden Bay, said: ''I'm absolutely horrified that in 1962 they were
prepared to inject myself, a pregnant woman, with radioactive iodine
when they had known earlier there was a problem. I feel our trust was
betrayed.''
She said they had been told there was no risk involved.
''I was 29. We were intelligent, well educated women, who wanted the
best for our children and we agreed to the tests because we never even
thought that a doctor would put us at risk.
''They did tell us they were using radioactivity in the tests but
nobody knew what that was then. I'm a 'wifie' now and it is not me I am
worried about, it is my daughter.''
Mrs Morrison said it was only when she started hearing about the
effects on soldiers of nuclear fallout on Christmas Island she became
concerned.
She said: ''I would like to know they are interested enough to see
what happened to the 91 children in northeast Scotland whose mothers
underwent these tests.''
The Medical Research Council, which funded the experiments, yesterday
denied they had been carried out secretly or that there had been any
risk.
Its spokesman, Mr Paul Fawcett, said he could not comment on the
experiment in which Mrs Morrison was involved because he had only scant
details, but confirmed another experiment involving 37 women was carried
out.
''The thyroid can cause all sorts of problems, particularly in
pregnancy, so doctors have had an interest in studying that for many
years and one of the ways they can do that is by administering
radioactive iodine,'' he said.
''It was, and still is, very common to give radioactive iodine to
investigate problems with the thyroid. That may sound terribly alarming
but a study took place in Sweden in 1990 involving more than 10,000
women over a period of nine years. ''All these women had diagnostic
amounts, amounts sufficient to see what was going on, or therapeutic
amounts which would be far greater and would be to actually treat
problems like cancer. They were followed up to see if any had got cancer
of the thyroid as a result and they found that the incidence of cancer
in those 10,000 women was exactly the same as the average.''
He said a report published in 1966 in the scientific journal Clinical
Science indicated the study was carried out in 37 patients with normal
pregnancies on whom termination was performed on medical or psychiatric
grounds.
The Channel 4 documentary made numerous revelations about experiments
which were carried out until the 1970s and one between 1955 and 1970 in
which hospital pathologists removed body parts from 6000 corpses,
without the knowledge of their families, and sent them to Harwell to be
analysed for fallout levels. The MRC confirmed to The Herald last night
that Aberdeen would have been one of the centres, but the research had
been carried out ''discreetly rather than secretly''. Channel 4 tracked
down Mrs Grace Brown for their programme. She discovered that when her
12-month-old son, Ray Jones, died in 1957 bones were removed from his
body without her consent.
''It was something that in your wildest dreams you never imagined
might happen to your baby,'' she said. ''I feel as if my son's body was
violated.
''If they had asked me for his heart to save another baby, it would
have been hard, but I would have done it. But taking bits of him without
asking . . .''
Mr Fawcett confirmed that bones had been removed from bodies for
analysis without families being aware, but said: ''They were taking bone
samples not secretly but discreetly.
''There was no law to say samples couldn't be taken at post mortem,
not only to determine the cause of death, but also for other health
problems. It was something that took place, but if your nearest and
dearest has died the last thing you want is a grisly account of what is
going to be done. It would be grossly insensitive.'' The experiments
were to determine how strontium was affecting people and the 6000
samples were random and from people of all ages.
Mr Fawcett said: ''What these experiments did show was that it was a
problem. People were getting strontium in their bones and children were
particularly at risk, and you can argue that exactly this kind of work
led to the banning of the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
''There is an implication that these experiments are about
radioactivity. They are not, they are about health problems, serious
health problems. Radioactivity was used simply to help scientists see
what these problems were and how they could be treated. It is a complete
red herring to say they were looking at the effects of radioactivity.''
In last night's programme, one experiment highlighted was on Asian
women in Coventry and it was claimed they were unaware of the details.
Mr Fawcett said the experiments in Coventry were to find out why Asian
women were deficient in iron. He added: ''One of the scientists is still
around and we have had a rock solid assurance they visited each family
and discussed the experiment and explained it to them. If the families
didn't speak English, they made sure a bilingual family member was
there. That was done in good faith.''
Mr Alan Reid, of the Aberdeen Royal Hospitals Trust, said last night:
''If Mrs Morrison or anyone else involved has any concerns they should
contact us in writing and we will address these concerns.''
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