Consent isn't important, research is

[MotherForkinShirtBalls]

I was going to say this is unfucking believable, but let's face it, a doctor's ego and his patent are far more important than an already vulnerable patient's right to know what is being done to her and for what purpose. Hope he loses his licence and is sued.

Gynaecologist performed ‘exploratory work’ without consent (via @IrishTimes) www.irishtimes.com/news/health/gynaecologist-performed-exploratory-work-without-consent-1.3935167

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Gynaecologist performed ‘exploratory work’ without consent (via @IrishTimes)

Ugh. How hard would it be to ask? This doctor clearly has issues with patients having the right to decide what can be done to their bodies.

Good to see that nurses raised the alarm and it was taken seriously when they did

But yes, Professor O’Sullivan sounds like he has no interest in, or understanding of, informed consent

Which makes him unsuitable to be a doctor

Ah, men's divine right to study.
What men have done to women and animals all in the name of study or "research" turns your stomach

Yes, it's good that the nurses flagged it so quickly and that they were listened to.

The quotes from O'Sullivan sound like he has no concept of these women as anything other than a tool in his plan for his innovation. The idea of him makes my skin crawl. I have some knowledge of clinical research through work and the idea that research can be done without fully informed consent is mind boggling.

The quotes are all about getting permission from the human subjects committee. Every person involved in research knows that 1) you don’t interact with subjects before you have committee permission and 2) you have to get explicit consent from every research subject.

Nothing further to say about whether the hospital would apologise??

Disgraceful. I hope those women do sue.
This same doctor also won't perform abortions in his hospital.

www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/kilkenny-hospital-unsuited-to-abortions-say-medics-932314.html

He doesn't seem to like women.

This reminds me of a segment that I listened to on This American Life recently about medical students performing examinations on unconscious women without their consent. Link here if anyone is interested (scroll down to "While You Were Out")
www.thisamericanlife.org/661/but-thats-what-happened

Absolutely disgraceful.

I also think that even if he knew the patients would definitely agree he still wouldn’t want to ask for their consent.

Sweetmelodies
He seems to have form for not wanting women to have bodily automony.

How horrible! When I was pregnant I. Ave consent to see how dilated I was and the mw gave me a sweep without warning I felt soo violated and cried for nearly half an hour.

What was done needed consent. Hope he's fired.

Prof O’Sullivan said the issue “had more to do with preliminary, exploratory work – as to whether you need consent for that before you engage in an actual clinical trial. It was more technical than anything else.”

That's just meaningless gobbledy-gook, isn't it? I keep reading it to see if it makes sense, but it's just words tacked together any old how.

Yet another entitled misogynistic bloke who wants to get his hands on women and take advantage of his power to do so.

The fact that he is a doctor undertaking ‘research’ is immaterial, other than that being the means by which he’s able to exert control and violate those women.

He is an abuser and should be treated as nothing more or less than that.

You have to get ethical approval and informed consent for a feasibility study. You have to have your hypothesis and protocol for the full trial ready for submission and reviewed by the hospital R&D committee before that.
Each woman should have had a patient information sheet and signed a witnessed consent form.

He has broken the law and could therefore theoretically get a custodial sentence. Clinical trials throughout Europe are subject to the same legislation.

He would have known he was breaking the law and acting unethically. No excuse whatsoever. Such arrogance.

And he's a gynaecologist! What a vile creep.
Hopefully one of these women will take this to the police as it reads as if the hospital are unlikely to do anything?

Yep I don’t understand his weird response about whether you need consent or not for ‘exploratory work’

Ermmm the bottom line is: You do not own those women’s bodies, you have no right to do anything to them without the explicit consent of the women- even procedures that are deemed medically necessary for them. You must have their permission to even treat them, let alone carry out experiments.

Obviously he cannot accept this fact.

Absolutely terrifying he is in a role where he can exercise a lot of power over women’s bodies and deals with women at their most vulnerable. Maybe it is no coincidence that he was drawn to this type of career.

I don't get why he didn't just ask them. Plenty of women will say yes.

You have to conclude that it was deliberate.

It's sexual assault, isn't it? I hope he goes to jail.

Indeed SweetMelodies
Which is why I prefer a woman gynaecologist because I find it impossible to tell the difference between creeps like this with a perverted determination to erode a woman's boundaries and good men.

How is this not considered sexual assaults?

www.encyclopedia.com/science/medical-magazines/nuremberg-code-establishes-principle-informed-consent

There is a copy of this code held in every clinical trial protocol/site file for every clinical trial in Europe. It has to be signed by everyone working in the trial.

I always mistrust men's motivations for entering fields like gynecology or obstetrics. Yeah I'm sure some of them are all right, but in general I wonder why women put up with men in these fields. I opted for midwife homebirths so I knew there was no chance my ob/gyn would be a raging misogynist

@twicemummy1 totally agree, although it isn’t always a popular opinion here when you see threads on the subject.
I’m glad the obs/gynae field has shifted from being male to female-dominated. I think the fact that almost all gynaecologists were men in the past perfectly reflects the patriarchy.