Maurice Henry Pappworth

Maurice Henry Pappworth (9 January 1910 – 12 October 1994) was a British medical ethicist and tutor, best known for his 1967 book Human Guinea Pigs, which exposed unethical dimensions of medical research.

Born and educated in Liverpool, Pappworth graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1932 from Liverpool University. After working in a series of junior medical positions, his applications for more senior posts were rejected. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Having been unsuccessful in achieving a post in any well known London hospital after the war, he set up in London as an independent medical consultant and tutor.

Pappworth's teaching of postgraduate students had a profound effect on the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) examination pass rate, and his contact with junior doctors led him to investigate the ethics of medical research on humans. The publication of Human Guinea Pigs, which examined unethical medical research practices, exposed the subject to a wider audience and led to Pappworth's becoming persona non grata within the medical establishment for much of his career, but ultimately helped lead to stricter codes of practice for human experimentation.

Early life and education Maurice Henry Papperovitch was born on 9 January 1910,#tag:ref|To parents (Isaac) Jacob Papperovitch (d. 1960), who changed the family name in the 1930s, and (Miriam) Mary (d. 1935). He graduated MB ChB (Hons) (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with honours) from Liverpool University's medical school in 1932 after previously studying at the Birkenhead Institute. In 1936, he received his MD degree (medical doctorate) and passed the MRCP exam (Membership of the Royal College of Physicians), after which he worked in several Liverpool hospitals in junior roles—including as a registrar under Henry Cohen. That position eventually went to a student whom he had coached for the MRCP exam. so Pappworth resolved to tutor qualified doctors in the particulars of medicine and patient examination that the exam required. Charging one pound—then not inconsiderable—for a two-hour class, Pappworth began teaching in his consulting rooms, later moving the classes to a public hall in London.

One of his most influential pupils was the oncologist Martin Gore, who also wrote a foreword in the biography written by Pappworth's daughter.

Human Guinea Pigs In the 1950s and 1960s, Pappworth became concerned by descriptions in medical journals of unethical experiments on human subjects in the United Kingdom and United States;

Pappworth made plans to publish an extended version of his article as a book. Human Guinea Pigs: Experimentation on Man named those responsible for the research and fully cited its sources. It detailed experiments on children and inmates of mental and penal institutions, and included 78 examples of research that had been carried out on patients who were at National Health Service hospitals for routine surgery. Some of these patients had been subjected to cardiac catheterisation—the insertion of a catheter into a chamber or vessel of the heart—without informed consent. Pappworth was advised by the medical establishment to keep quiet on the issue, but he refused. but Human Guinea Pigs was eventually published in 1967 by Routledge and Kegan Paul. but had not named those involved. Despite official lack of interest and professional impedance, Pappworth's and Beecher's work eventually led to the introduction of stricter codes of practice for human experimentation and the establishment of research ethics committees, which would have come much later had it not been for their exposés.

Selected publications A Primer of Medicine. Eliciting and assessing clinical signs, and the art and science of diagnosis. London: Butterworths. 1st ed. 1960; 2nd ed. 1963; 3rd ed. 1971 ; 4th ed. 1978 Human Guinea Pigs. Experimentation on man. London: Beacon Press 1968. Published in Italian as Cavie Humane and German as Menschen als Versuchskaninchen Passing Medical Examinations. A guide to undergraduates, postgraduates and examiners. London: Butterworths 1975.