`No consent' row

A second research institution in the US has been told to stop its research on
human subjects. Federal officials suspended research at the West Los Angeles
Veterans Hospital last month, arguing that patients may have been enrolled in
research projects without their consent
(This Week, 10 April, p 5). Now similar
action has been taken against Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North
Carolina, after concerns about lax procedures within the review board that vets
research projects. However, Duke spokeswoman Nancy Jensen says that no patients
have been harmed in Duke’s 2000 current clinical trials.