Bad Medicine 001: Bad for Baby sources

“Diagnosis of Congenital Syphilis: Pathognomonic criteria” by MD William C. Black. Journal of Pediatrics, 1939 vol. 14 issue 6 pages 761-779.

 “The etiology of acute infectious gingivostomatitis (Vincent’s stomatitis).” by MD William C. Black. Journal of Pediatrics, 1942 vol 20 issue 2.

"1930s-1940s: William C Black, MD, conducted herpes experiments on children."   AHRP.org. http://ahrp.org/1930s-1940s-william-c-black-md-herpes-experiments-on-children/

Bad Medicine 001: Bad for Baby Transcript

When I was in undergrad, I had a medical ethics professor that liked to give seemingly simple examples. It’s wrong to kick a kid, he would say, and the class would nod in agreement.


Then he would expand upon the situation. It’s wrong to kick a kid to find out what kicking a kid does, he would say, and most of the class would still be nodding. It’s easy to infer that kicking a kid will probably just result in a crying kid.


Eventually, the situation would become so complicated that what used to be unanimous agreement would become this shattered, spiraling conversation on just what would make it okay to attack a child. Would it be okay to kick a kid if you got $1000? Probably not. Would it be okay to kick a kid if there was a 5% chance of preventing other kids from being kicked in the future? That seems like low odds. But is it okay at 25%? 50%?