Roxanne, newly-certified as IBCLC (Yippee!), asks whether it is a conflict 
of interest for a named IBCLC to be a featured speaker at a dinner hosted by 
Mead Johnson, where nurses and IBCLCs are invited to get a free meal while 
listening to the presentation.

Heck, yeah.

First of all, congratulations to you and your colleagues who chose NOT to 
attend this dinner.  Secondly, the Lactnet Archives are chockful of posts 
about this issue.  Specifically look for anything written by Marsha Walker.

This is how I reach my conclusion:  The IBLCE Code of Ethics, which all 
IBCLCs *must* follow (at risk of sanction, triggered by a written complaint) 
says at Tenet 24:  "Adhere to those provisions of the International Code of 
Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes [the Who Code] and subsequent WHA 
resolutions, which pertain to health workers."

The WHO Code, at point 7.3 pertaining to health workers, says:  "7.3  No 
financial or material inducements to promote products within the scope of 
this Code should be offered by manufacturers or distributors to health care 
workers or members of their families, nor should these be accepted by health 
care workers or members of their families."

So the bottom line:  Mead Johnson --  or any other formula, bottle or teat 
manufacturer -- should not be offering dinners, cups, pens, pins or ANYTHING 
to health care workers (which includes IBCLCs) and health care workers 
should not be accepting them.

Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

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