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http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/OHofJWGforDOE/

An Interview with John Gofman, “Benefits of Radiation Therapy and Ethics”.

GOURLEY: Now, one thing confuses me terribly about all this, and I’m not a scientist and I’m new on this: You, yourself, said that [there are] medical benefits in certain cases and certain specific cancers and that sort of thing. How does the line fall between where it can be therapeutic, [and] where it’s harmful?
GOFMAN: Line falls at one point. I have no difficulty with radiation therapy being beneficial in certain situations. I have no difficulty with diagnostic radiation, finding something important out [from] a diagnosis that can [save] a person’s life.
GOURLEY: Which diagnosis are you speaking of here?
GOFMAN: You can talk about the possibility of pneumonia that’s not appreciated or some mass in the abdomen or something like a cardiac lesion. I have never in my life said people should not have an x ray. I have never argued against radiation therapy. I talked to you earlier about some places where I participated in radiation therapy and I know people were benefited.
GOURLEY: Right.
GOFMAN: That is a world apart from what your problem is in this whole thing. Where I stand on it is, you voluntarily, you accept a risk for a benefit to you or your child or your mother or father if you discussed it with them. That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s when somebody says you shall be allowed to get x units of radiation as a member of the public without any benefit to you: “Society will benefit.”

That’s immoral, it’s illegal, and it’s being done every day. I just think it’s just illegal and it’s a violation of the Declaration of Independence. It’s a violation of Constitutional rights and none of the medical ethicists are saying a goddamn thing about. I’m very critical of medical ethicists for that.’ http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/OHofJWGforDOE/