医学雑誌の偽善:死の商人が売りさばくトップジャーナルー続報

摘要

In the April 2007 issue of Clinical Evaluation, we reported that the Reed-Elsevier, the sponsor of Lancet, owned Reed-Exhibition, which organized the world's biggest arms fairs, and that celebrated academicians voiced out their strong arguments against Reed-Exhibition's involvement in arms fairs. Reed-Elsevier, finally responding to strong pressure from various sectors, announced on June 1, 2007 that it was completely withdrawing from five biggest arm fairs within the year.To follow the situation after the previous report, and to confirm the effectiveness of our proposal in the report on moral principles for medical scientists.The voices of the world's celebrated academicians strongly influenced the decision of the Reed-Elsevier to withdraw from arms fairs, and their courage and commitment to high moral standards should be commended. On the other hand, there are some points to be considered : 1) Reed-Elsevier s announcement of its withdrawal from the arms fair business seems to have stemmed, not from its moral judgment, but from fear of the negative image it would create on its investors; 2) The appeal by the Lancet to its sponsor seems to be weaker than that by independent academicians; 3) Japanese medical scientists do not seem to show strong interest in this issue; 4) We consider our moral principles to be effective at individual or institutional level, but more attention should be given to developing national, social, and administrative controls with regard to dual-use problems and the relationship between scientists and the military industry.More continuous scrutiny of this issue and more consideration would be required to find ways to control dual-use problems in Japan.