Herb Green

Who was Herb Green?

George Herbert "Herb" Green was the doctor at the centre of the Cartwright Inquiry, a commission set up to examine claims that he had been illegally experimenting on patients without their consent between 1966 and 1987. The inquiry found that he had conducted a study between 1966 and 1987 in which the cases of women with major cervical abnormalities were followed without definitive treatment, in an attempt to prove his "personal belief" that these abnormalities were "not a forerunner of invasive cancer." According to Judith Macdonald, a researcher at the University of Waikato, Green was strongly opposed to abortion, and his distaste for anything that reduced a woman's fertility was evident in his discussions with patients and his avoidance of the treatments available at the time. This suggestion was refuted by Green and other witnesses at the Inquiry, and a recent history has questioned its validity.

After Green retired, a paper was published in 1984 discussing the outcome of Green's management of his patients. This paper came to the attention of Phillida Bunkle and Sandra Coney, who published an article entitled "An Unfortunate Experiment" in Metro Magazine in June 1987.