Our review of the Blackman and Skolnik stories raises the issues of informed consent and shared decision making. One part of that process might be to review the literature about the proposed procedure. But we can’t always count on such studies being accurate or unbiased.
Here’s an example, stemming from the Blackman story, that shows an appalling lack of professional ethics on the part of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery
As noted by Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh in The Treatment Trap (page 122, with my emphasis):
The people on the front lines who lie down on the gurney are the forgotten ones. The only shield they have is the wisdom to know the difference between solid evidence and commercial promotion. That wisdom may come from their own due diligence or a stroke of luck in finding good people whose sole purpose is their best interest.