DES and ETHICS

Over many years the Australian Government has been resistive to the public promotion of information about DES exposure, due to concerns that this information might raise anxiety in the community.

Below is a Memo from USA National Institute of Health Association of Bioethics 16/7/85 in response to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). If you alter the second word to "politicians", then this Memo brilliantly applies to the current political attitudes faced by DES exposed Australians. Read it here:

If physicians in positions of responsibility have knowledge about potentially harmful consequences and do not disclose them, they could be blameworthy in an ethical sense. If one reason that the risk is remote and the chances of unduly alarming the informees is great, therefore, justification exists for withholding that information......then the rejoinder would be, "who are you to decide what will or will not upset me?" The burden of proof in these cases is always on those who argue for non-disclosure, and if you look at the evidence, people normally want to be told of these things. I should say, people in our culture want to be told.