Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 67
1
2 Q. What matters is the health of people?
3 A. One would think so.
4
5 Q. Do you agree that one of the ways in which people may
6 remain healthy, so far as possible, is by being given the
7 information they need to take decisions about their lives?
8 A. Certainly.
9
10 Q. Do you agree that in matters of health that information
11 can only be provided directly or indirectly by medical men
12 and scientists, directly or indirectly?
13 A. No.
14
15 Q. You do not? Do you agree that the principal source of
16 information for what the public learns about its health
17 must be the efforts of medical men and scientists in
18 resolving questions of this kind?
19 A. Could you repeat that question, please?
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. It is rather different from the
22 earlier one, which was much more general.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: What I am asking you is this: If you want to
25 know -- if I want to know what is good for my health, I am
26 not likely to listen to anybody who has not got his
27 information from a scientist or medical person, am I?
28 A. I cannot respond what you might do but, with all due
29 respect, I would suggest you may not wish to limit your
30 sources of information simply to medical men and
31 scientists.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you may not be really far apart; it
34 is just that there may be an intermediary between ----?
35 A. They can certainly be a good source of information;
36 sometimes they are not a good source of information.
37
38 MR. RAMPTON: No, of course they are not. There are some that
39 are cranky and unreliable. Sometimes the combined
40 thinking of medical men and scientists is promulgated to
41 the public at large by governments, is it not?
42 A. Yes.
43
44 Q. We have seen that, and by national bodies, and we have
45 seen that from America?
46 A. Yes.
47
48 Q. We have seen the Surgeon General and we have seen what the
49 National Academy of Sciences, National Cancer Institute
50 and so on; that is one means by which the public can
51 regulate its habits as to benefit its health, is it not?
52 A. Yes.
53
54 Q. Assume for the moment that is the character of this
55 document, that is to say, information conveyed to the
56 public by a responsible body so that the public can keep
57 up to the minute on what is good for them and what is bad
58 for them; will you assume that?
59 A. OK.
60
