I am really appreciating the thread on ethics when it stays focused on the principles involved. If we can't discuss ethics and the way we practice, we have a much bigger problem than I thought. I know we can do so without attacking one another personally. This fall I have been fortunate enough to take courses in research ethics, and statistics in epidemiology. Both very useful! In the ethics course we were told that the commonest form of scientific dishonesty at the moment is fraudulent authorship, which includes the type of fraud Valerie mentions - where a company 'buys' a researcher to put her/his name on a study commissioned and possibly carried out by the company with a financial interest in the outcome, because it would never get published if it were known that the company was behind it. I am not so worried about the influence of industry-financed research when there is disclosure of financing and/or authorship. I am worried about the ghostwritten articles, because how will I really know who is behind them, or even which ones they are? This is why we need to be attentive at all times when reading research articles. We need to ask ourselves every time we read an article: who will benefit from these conclusions being accepted? Who will suffer? There has been at least one article published in JHL showing that a hand-operated personal pump is just as good as a hospital grade electric pump. It was funded (and perhaps carried out) by the manufacturer of the hand-operated pump. I would have more confidence in the findings if it were someone completely independent doing the comparisons between pumps. Another point to remember is that what gets researched is not accidental. There is always a choice made about what to fund, and that choice is most definitely fraught with ethical dilemmas. That brings me to my next thought: a nagging question that will not leave me alone is whether the companies putting efforts into researching breast pump technology practice what they preach - that they want women to be able to breastfeed, as distinguished from breastmilk feed. This to me would mean having exemplary maternity leave programs with pay for their own employees, for starters, and paid breastfeeding breaks when said employees rejoin them. If they really wanted to convince me of the sincerity of their intentions, they would also be supporting legislation to guarantee every employee who gives birth, the right to choose to be home, off work, with the child for a minimum of 3 months after birth, preferably much more. These are things I never would have thought of, had I not moved from my home in the US to a country with a completely different spin on public health and on individual vs. collective responsibility. Fish can't see the water, as the saying goes. Rachel Myr, Kristiansand, Norway really too tired to be posting so long-windedly after a WONDERFUL home birth last night, a few hours' sleep, and a full day at work at the hospital today. Good thing this doesn't happen every week! OTOH maybe I could quit my day job if it did? *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html