A consultant who is being sued for libel after criticising an American company’s research has pledged to turn the action into a test case for freedom of speech.
Dr Peter Wilmshurst, a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said he aims to use a public-interest defence to fight the claim from NMT Medical and establish the principle that scientists may engage freely in academic debate.
He said he was prepared to risk losing his home to take the case to trial because victory would set a precedent protecting other scientists from “legal bullying”.
Wilmshurst said: “I have got a responsibility to fight this. There is a fundamental principle of science at stake here. People have to be free to challenge research.”
There is growing concern about the use of England’s draconian libel laws to stifle expert scrutiny of scientific evidence. Simon Singh, the science writer, has been sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association over an article in which he questioned the evidence that spinal manipulation could treat childhood conditions such as asthma and colic.
A petition to keep libel laws out of science has been signed by nearly 19,000 supporters, including Lord Rees of Ludlow, the president of the Royal Society; Sir Mark Walport, the director of the Wellcome Trust; and Sir David King, a former government chief scientist.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, who spoke to Dr Wilmshurst last week, said that he was preparing reforms to the libel laws. “What concerns me is that the current arrangements are being used by big corporations to restrict fair comment, not always by journalists but also by academics,” he said.
Wilmshurt’s case began with his involvement in a study of a medical device made by NMT called Starflex, designed to close a type of hole in the heart known as a patent foramen ovale (PFO). The study investigated Starflex as a potential treatment for migraine, which is significantly more common among people with a PFO, but failed to find benefits.
At a cardiology conference in Washington in 2007, Dr Wilmshurst criticised NMT in relation to the research. His comments were reported by Heartwire, a website, prompting NMT to sue him.
Read more at The Times.
Tags: Libel
