Scientific Fraud: The McBride Case — Judgment

Dr W G McBride, who was a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist and the first to publish on the teratogenicity of thalidomide, has been removed from the medical register after a four-year inquiry by the Medical Tribunal of New South Wales. Of the 44 medical practice allegations made against him by the Department of Health only one minor one was found proved but 24 of the medical research allegations were found proved. Of these latter, the most serious was that in 1982 he published in a scientific journal, spurious results relating to laboratory experiments on pregnant rabbits dosed with scopolamine. Had Dr McBride used any of the many opportunities available to him to make an honest disclosure of his misdemeanour, his conduct would have been excused by the Tribunal. However, he persisted in denying his fraudulent conduct for several years, including the four years of the Inquiry. The Tribunal unanimously found Dr McBride not of good character in the context of fitness to practise medicine. The decision to deregister was taken by a majority of 3 to 1. Since research science is not organized as a profession, there are no formal sanctions which can be taken against his still engaging in such research.