THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502240032
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Some years ago, aggrieved liberals in Congress decided that health issues affecting women and minorities were getting less than their fair share of attention - and funding.
There was a grain of truth to their contention, and it's possible that competently drafted legislation could have been useful. If scientists with research worth doing on health issues affecting women and minorities had been allocated more funds, gratifying results might have been produced.
But Congress couldn't wait for science to work its slow, methodical magic. It wanted instant results, a cure for what it saw as medical discrimination. So it passed a law mandating ``Clinical Research Equity for Women and Minorities'' - a kind of health version of affirmative action.
As Sally Satel reports in The New Republic, the initiative has been a major mistake with unfortunate and unintended consequences. It contains guidelines that require ``Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects of Clinical Research.''
The minority groups enumerated are blacks, Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders and American Indian/Alaskan Native. To observe the letter of the law, even research into ills affecting only narrowly defined segments of the population - like Tay-Sachs or sickle cell anemia - might have to include Polynesians and Eskimos in studies.
Researchers complain that these politically correct protocols make no scientific sense and will greatly increase the cost of doing research. One issue that got women lawmakers in a snit was the fact that almost all research into heart disease had been done on men, but the results are widely thought to be just as valid for women.
Ironically, forcing the medical establishment to duplicate research on women and minorities could actually reduce the amount of money available to fund new research on ills affecting women and minorities, rather than expanding it.
Is there a cure for this misguided legislation? Yes, scrap it. As doctors know, the cardinal rule of medicine ought to be: First, do no harm. The micromanaging of scientific research by politicians has done harm that needs to be undone. by CNB