Health & History, 2017. 19/2 167 Book Reviews Ronald W. Jones, Doctors in Denial. The Forgotten Women in the ‘Unfortunate Experiment’ (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2017). ISBN: 978-0-947522-43-8 (PB). B&W illustrations, 16pp colour photographs. 248pp. Just over thirty years ago, the Commission of Inquiry into Cervical Cancer (known as the Cartwright Inquiry, after chair Judge Sylvia Cartwright) began. Over 1987–88, evidence pertaining to obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Herb Green’s long-running carcinoma in situ (CIS) study at Auckland’s National Women’s Hospital (NWH) was heard, with its details shocking the wider New Zealand public. Green, as the Cartwright Inquiry report concluded, had studied the natural history of CIS in his women patients, rather than treating them, on the theory that CIS didn’t inevitably lead to cancer. This was undertaken without their knowledge or consent, and many women subsequently developed cancer and some died. Other unscrupulous research and teaching practices at NWH were revealed as part of the inquiry, as well as a deep-seated culture of medical paternalism. Obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Ron Jones was one of Green’s junior contemporaries at NWH, and, together with two other colleagues (Drs Bill McIndoe and Jock McLean), had in 1984 attempted to expose Green’s study to the wider medical community by publishing a scientific paper. Ultimately, however, it was women’s healthactivistsSandraConeyandPhillidaBunklewhosemeticulously researched article ‘An unfortunate experiment’ in Metro magazine in 1987 led to government action being taken. Jones, now retired, recounts in Doctors in Denial how Green’s research and the surrounding events unfolded, providing a valuable insider perspective on the male-dominated medical environment and relationship dynamics within NWH from the 1960s, when Green first joined the staff. Over fourteen chapters, Jones then takes his narrative through to post-Cartwright Inquiry developments, including the introduction of patient-centred measures to New Zealand’s health system (a national cervical screening programme, patient safety legislation, and ethics committees), the medical profession’s responses to the inquiry, and more recently, contentious revisionist perspectives attempting to question Green’s culpability and to recast events as part of a ‘feminist agenda’to break ‘the power of the medical 168 BOOK REVIEWS profession’ (p.194). The latter development particularly concerns Jones, who emphasises that the book’s title refers not only to the failure of NWH doctors to stop Green, but to those doctors of today who have now ‘embraced the revisionism’ (p.194). Their ‘wilful blindness’ is, he suggests, ‘inexcusable’ (p.194), although he holds out hope that a new generation of obstetricians and gynaecologists might yet see fit to apologise to the ‘forgotten women’ affected by Green’s experiment (p.190). Jones critically assesses the personal and professional attributes of Green and his contemporaries, and does not mince his words in doing so; although he acknowledges the overall efforts of Professor Dennis Bonham (Green’s superior at NWH, who was also found guilty of disgraceful conduct for his role in the research) and Green to generally improve women and children’s health, he otherwise characterises them as arrogant, stubborn bullies who ignored and overlooked contrary opinions (p.31, for example). Jones does not shy away from addressing the broader ethical and paternalistic attitudes within the medical community that the Cartwright Inquiry exposed. In doing so, he closely and honestly examines his own role in the events (particularly in Chapter 14, ‘Mea Culpa’) and whether he or any of his colleagues, and particularly renowned perinatal expert, ‘Mont’ Liggins, should have taken further action to stop Green’s research. While the medical profession’s culpability is central to Jones’ analysis, he is concerned—as the book’s sub-title indicates—to ensure that the ‘forgotten women’ in Green’s research are remembered, so that such research can never be repeated. Green’s ‘unfortunate experiment’, Jones says, ‘rates, with Tuskegee, as one of the worst examples of known human experimentation, outside of war, in the twentieth century’ (p.164). Jones achieves his goal primarily by devoting two of the book’s fourteen chapters to telling the individual stories of two women. His concern for their suffering and disrupted lives is, however, a consistent thread throughout the entire book...