Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 - Troubled by news accounts of medical participation in coercive interrogations at Guantánamo Bay and the resulting unease in the professional medical community, the Pentagon led an intense one-day tour of the detention camp last month, several participants said in recent days. The purpose of the trip, some of the participants said, was for the military leadership to convince the ethicists, psychiatrists, psychologists and others who visited the detention camp at the United States Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that what was occurring there did not violate medical ethics and was necessary to strengthen the nation's...

The president tapped into broadly held public sentiment in his radio address on Saturday, calling for reform at the Food and Drug Administration. But understanding why his assertion that the government can ensure "the medicines we take...don't cause harm" is simplistic can also help us understand why his choice for the person who will have that impossible responsibility is folly. In naming Dr. Joshua Sharfstein as deputy commissioner, the president decided that absolute drug safety should come first--even at the cost of the drugs' availability to sick patients. That doesn't bode well for our chances of getting the new medications...

All the wrong people are excited about Obama's FDA picks.Over the weekend, President Barack Obama nominated Margaret Hamburg to serve as the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Joshua Sharfstein to serve as principal deputy commissioner of the agency.The FDA regulates about a quarter of all the consumer products that Americans buy, which roughly equals $1 trillion. Many analysts predict that Hamburg and Sharfstein will divvy up their functions in the agency with Hamburg focusing chiefly on food issues and Sharfstein being charge of drugs and medical devices. What should we expect? To some extent, their...