Israeli health ministry lambasted for negligence over medical experiments

Thousands of Israelis, from infants to demented old people, have in recent years been included in illegal medical experiments, some without informed consent being given by the patient or his or her parent or guardian, as required by the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

This was disclosed by Eliezer Goldberg, Israel's state comptroller, in his semi-annual report monitoring the functions of public bodies. The comptroller severely criticised the health ministry for negligence and carelessness in supervising hospitals' clinical trials, some of which involved potentially harmful invasive tests and treatments.

He also lambasted the ministry for spending eight years preparing a government …