Prof. on U.S. Radiation Panel

A Harvard Medical School professor will serve on national advisory committee to review government sponsored human radiation experiments, the White House announced yesterday.

Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology Dr. Mary Ann Stevenson is none of 15 experts named to the panel Stevenson is also the deputy chief of the Department of Radiation Oncology at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

"We're pleased and honored to have a member of our faculty included o this distinguished panel with such an important mission," a spokesperson for the Medical School said last night.

Stevenson has declined to comment on her appointment until she has prepared a formal statement, Deaconess Hospital spokesperson Karen Whiting Burges said last night.

"We feel that it's real honor that a member of the Deaconess staff has been named to serve on this panel," Burges said.

The advisory committee will review the ethical and scientific standards of all government-sponsored radiation experiments since 1946.

The committee will "provide advice and recommendations ...on issues such as whether there was a clear medical or scientific purpose for the experiments, if there was proper informed consent, or if appropriate medical follow-up was conducted," according to a White House statement released yesterday.

The committee will submit an interim report to President Clinton in six months and a final report in one year. Dr. Ruth R. Faden, a medical ethicist from Johns Hopkins University, will chair the panel. The other nationally, selected members of the committee experts in law, medical ethics, human experimentation, epidemiology and radiation biology.

In a related move, the White House yesterday issued a Presidential Memorandum instructing all Executive Department and Agencies to "review their policies on the protection of human subjects an scientific research and so strictly enforce them."

"In light of actions from decades ago that recently come to light the Memorandum directs each Executive Department and Agency to exercise constant care in these matters," according to the White House statement.

The other members of the Advisory Committee are: Dr. Ruth Macklin, Patricia A. King, Dr. Jay Katz, Dr. Susan E. Lederer, Kenneth R. Feinberg, Dr. Duncan Thomas, Dr. Eli Glatsein, Dr. Henry D. Royal, Dr. Reed V. Tuckson, Dr. Philip K. Russell, Dr. Nancy L. Oleinick, Dr. Frank Press and Dr. Louis L. Norris.