http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7400/1155
here is the BMJ editorial 'No more free lunches' introducing the theme of
this week's issue "Free pens and pizza lunches. Sponsored conferences and
compromised medical education. Courtesy golf and unaffordable holidays.
Thought leaders and ghost writers. These are the trappings of doctors and
drug companies being entwined in an embrace of avarice and excess, an
embrace that distorts medical information and patient care."

See http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/326/7400/1155#32785  and among the rapid
responses to this is one from Rachel Myr, member and list mother of Lactnet.
Rachel brings the formula industry into the debate and makes the point about
not just *being* independent, but *being seen* to be independent.

Another response writer, a medical student says:  "Sometimes the
implications of the situation are hard to see when it's 'only a free pen'.
" -- I pick this line because recently I posted about the ethics of giving a
pump company pen as a prize in an in-service training quiz.  Aside from a
reply from the original poster, I have been interested to notice a
resounding silence on this topic on lactnet.  I am wondering what this
means.  My inclination is to think the worst, but I am asking all you who
might have a view on this to post.  To me, the reputation of the entire
profession of LC and also the ethics of breastfeeding volunteers around the
globe, could be coloured by the response, or lack of response on this issue.

I am not talking about judicious use of tools in appropriate circumstances,
I am talking about falling into the entwined embrace described by the BMJ.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK


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