[jlgreco]

I mean ethical standards of the profession in general, as in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ethics

If they were getting approval after drugging up their patients or while their patients were in labor then that is clearly an issue; an issue that deserves an accurate headline.

[cgranade]

You got an accurate headline: approval was not obtained. You cannot call drugged up statements approval. You're trying to split a hair that isn't there, about what kinds of coerced approval can be counted as approval and what kinds can't. By doing so, you're ignoring that the prison medical staff abused positions of authority and abused drugs even to obtain consent for permanent medical procedures.

What you're arguing is much like arguing that if a woman had sex while drunk (under the influence of a drug that impedes judgement), then no headline should call it rape. In that context, the error should, I hope, be quite clear.

[jlgreco]

If the controversy here is limited to the times that doctors pressured sedated patients, then the article does not make that clear. It sounds like they are talking about doctors doing this in the more general case.

"What you're arguing is much like arguing that if a woman had sex while drunk (under the influence of a drug that impedes judgement), then no headline should call it rape."

HELL NO what I am arguing is not like that. I am not okay with doctors pressuring drugged up patients. As I said: "If they were getting approval after drugging up their patients or while their patients were in labor then that is clearly an issue"

Holy hell... Do try to be more careful when you accuse somebody of being like a rape apologist...

The headline matches only a subset of the articles content. A subset that it mentions only very briefly, almost as an aside. That particular incident was clear coercion, but if the other incidents involved similar coercion then the article fails to say so.

Instead the article focuses on the failure of the doctors to seek state approval. It is a poor headline.