Posts by Cecelia
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Professor Bryder, a well-known medical historian, was by her own admission surprised by her findings. She found there was no evidence that Dr Green had performed a clinical trial on patients with cancer of the cervix and that treatment at the hospital between 1955 and 1976 was based on contemporary evidence and was consistent with world best practice.
Colin Mantell
Professor Emeritus
(Wanaka)Her theme that Green was simply following overseas trends is not true. Carcinoma in-situ (CIS) – now called cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 (CIN 3) – has always been treated and in 1958 the less radical cone biopsy replaced hysterectomy as the preferred management of CIS at National Women’s.
Ronald W Jones
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National Women’s HospitalLetters to this week's Listener. Who speaketh the truth?
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<quote>Ian, to clarify: I have friends that I love and respect, who have wonderful children that they happen to smack (usually in direct response to an incident).
Personally, I abhor smacking in all cases. Perhaps this is because my son is naturally well behaved (I prefer to think we raised him well). Or my wife was never smacked. Perhaps I would have smacked if the time and place were different Who knows?
Hence my conflict. I don't want my friends prosecuted (which they won't be unless they smack for "correction" under current law).<quote>But the whole point of the law is not just to stop assault of children but to help us turn to a more sensible mode of discipline. I smacked my first child, rarely smacked my second and completely avoided smacking for my third. I deeply regret smacking my first son. It was my anxiety as a first time mother that led me to do it and I wish their had been societal disapproval in those days.
With Sue Bradford's amendment in place, people like your friends will gradually realise that smacking is not the only way. their children would be wonderful, or even more wonderful without it. -
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I didn't know Paul Henry was a doctor!
All we need is for Paul Henry to run for The Listener editorship and we'll be sweet. He would have been even more sympathetic to a backlash against feminism and radical stuff than Joanne Black.
I note with interest that Black was careful to qualify Bunkle's statements . She didn't do this with the article on Bryder. (Or rather the sub-editor didn't.) The headline of one was Finally the truth - no ifs, no buts. The headline this week is in speech marks: "Never a doubt".
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Even if Coney was wrong about mammograms, she was probably right about the Unfortunate Experiment.
I didn't agree with her anti-mammogram stance at the time. When you are diagnosed with an advanced cancer you tend to want everyone to be screened for lots of cancers wherever possible.
It seems that there is more unanimity about CIS and cervical screening than there is about prostate cancer screening and mammograms. Therefore Coney's attitude to mammograms does not undermine the contribution she made to woman's health.
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Isn't it too recent for the history of the so-called Unfortunate Experiment to be contested to the extent you mention, Hilary? When many of the main players are still around and there seem to be some unassailable facts? Surely the core details were correct even if some might say they were wrapped in the feminist thinking of the time.
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But would there have been any acceptable way for Bryder to nuance the accepted wisdom? I suspect, for some people, no.
I think there could have been an acceptable way to "nuance" it. But actually denying the experiment and rewriting history is akin to climate change denial.
Charlotte Paul said that in a way there were two groups.
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Listener might be worth buying one more time to see what the reaction to last week's cover story is in the Letters section.
(I was determined to keep away from the Listener when it changed a few years ago but I enjoy the arts section. Last week had an interesting article about The Wire.)
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Unfortunate Revision
This is the headline to a very interesting Herald feature this am. I wouldn't have known but read it in a cafe in Kaiwaka!