No subject

   To the Editor:

   Re =E2Panel Suggests Using Inmates in Drug Trials=E2 (front page, Aug.
   13):

   This proposal is not only a violation of the basic tenet of the
   Nuremberg Code of Medical Ethics, which requires =E2freely given
   informed consent=E2 by the subject of the trial, but it is also a bad
   idea.

   The abuse of human beings by physicians and scientists is well
   documented during the past 100 years. Let us not revert to behavior
   that is morally wrong and use prisoners, who while incarcerated have
   no freedom of action.

   Michael J. Franzblau, M.D.
   San Rafael, Calif., Aug. 13, 2006
   The writer is a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of
   California, San Francisco.

   Note from AnalPhilosopher: Why can't prisoners consent to medical
   experimentation?