Doctors boycott TV programme

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 9

Doctors boycott TV programme

\ NZPA London television programme about the criteria used by transplant doctors to determine death has raised a storm of controversy among the public and the medical profession. The original “Panorama” programme produced American, though not British, evidence to cast doubt on the criteria used to determine brain death and suggesting that patients not yet dead had been used for kidney and othe- transplant operations.

It brought fierce reaction from the medical profession, appeared to affect the number of people offering organs for transplant, and provoked criticism of the 8.8. C. by a number of members of Parliament. Now, the British Medical Association has boycotted a second look at the subject in “Panorama” by refusing to take part in the programme.

As a result the 8.8. C. has cancelled the inquiry because it failed to find a doctor willing to break the association’s boycott.

The medical association now plans to hold its own media conference at which experts invited to join the “Panorama” debate will explain the workings of the code of practice on transplant surgery. They say that American and British practices are different.

The medical association’s view was that the allotted five minutes on the proposed “Panorama” programme was not -enough. A spokesman said letters and telephone -calls Were still being received from people who were "very confused" by the first programme.

“we do not think the general public has so far had an opportunity to have the code exp.ained by those who operate if every day,” he said.

Mr John Gau, 8.8. C. Television’s head of current affairs, said that doctors’ unwillingness to have their professional judgments tested by other members of their profession “will do little to enhance either public understanding or acceptance of them.”