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Herb Green
George Herbert Green (16 November 1916–4 March 2001), B.A., BSc, M.B., Ch.B., (D.Obs. R.C.O.G.), M.R.C.O.G.(Lond.), was a New Zealand Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who led the National Women's Hospital Cervical Cancer Unit as Professor through the 1960s and 1970s and became notorious for conducting an alleged unethical experiment that was the subject of the Cartwright Inquiry.
Green was born in the rural South Otago town of Balclutha, New Zealand. He attended South Otago High School, where he studied University papers before even leaving high school. He later said that one of his teachers died of cervical cancer, and this sparked his lifelong interest in the disease.
Green attended the University of Otago and earned a B.A. in 1938, BSc (including pure and applied mathematics) in 1940, before studying Medicine. He graduated with M.B., Ch.B. in 1946, the same year as Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes. While at University he gained a Blue in Rugby, and also represented Southland in cricket. He was described as "a powerfully built man who towered over his colleagues".
Green worked at the National Women's Hospital as a House Officer and Registrar from 1948 to 1950. In 1948 he passed the RCOG Diploma in Obstetrics, scoring third highest in the exam. As a registrar he was reported to show an aptitude for statistics and analysis. He gained RCOG Membership in 1950.
In 1951 he went to work and study in the U.K., where he worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.
In 1955 Green returned to New Zealand, as Consultant Obstetrician at Wanganui Hospital. In 1956, while attending a training course at the National Women's Hospital, he was recruited back to work there as a Consultant. He shifted back there in 1956, joining the 'D' team which was primarily responsible for treating reproductive tract cancers. Whilst becoming the senior consultant in D team it is an exaggeration to say that he saw "nearly every woman who came to the hospital with invasive cancer and many of those with the earlier or precursor stages", as was claimed around the time of the Inquiry.
He was concerned about risks of surgery leading to infertility, and Cartwright refers to him being "increasingly concerned at the number of young women undergoing hysterectomy for the disease (CIS) which he regarded as unnecessarily radical". Journalist Sandra Coney (1987) states that "He wanted to save women from mutilating surgery and to do so he had to prove what at first he had suspected and eventually came to believe: that CIS was a harmless disease which hardly, if ever, progressed to invasive cancer.".
Outside of his cervical cancer work he was an early proponent of the Pap smear, although not necessarily of population-based screening programmes. He was also anti-abortion, and opposed sterilisation without women's consent.
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Herb Green
George Herbert Green (16 November 1916–4 March 2001), B.A., BSc, M.B., Ch.B., (D.Obs. R.C.O.G.), M.R.C.O.G.(Lond.), was a New Zealand Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who led the National Women's Hospital Cervical Cancer Unit as Professor through the 1960s and 1970s and became notorious for conducting an alleged unethical experiment that was the subject of the Cartwright Inquiry.
Green was born in the rural South Otago town of Balclutha, New Zealand. He attended South Otago High School, where he studied University papers before even leaving high school. He later said that one of his teachers died of cervical cancer, and this sparked his lifelong interest in the disease.
Green attended the University of Otago and earned a B.A. in 1938, BSc (including pure and applied mathematics) in 1940, before studying Medicine. He graduated with M.B., Ch.B. in 1946, the same year as Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes. While at University he gained a Blue in Rugby, and also represented Southland in cricket. He was described as "a powerfully built man who towered over his colleagues".
Green worked at the National Women's Hospital as a House Officer and Registrar from 1948 to 1950. In 1948 he passed the RCOG Diploma in Obstetrics, scoring third highest in the exam. As a registrar he was reported to show an aptitude for statistics and analysis. He gained RCOG Membership in 1950.
In 1951 he went to work and study in the U.K., where he worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.
In 1955 Green returned to New Zealand, as Consultant Obstetrician at Wanganui Hospital. In 1956, while attending a training course at the National Women's Hospital, he was recruited back to work there as a Consultant. He shifted back there in 1956, joining the 'D' team which was primarily responsible for treating reproductive tract cancers. Whilst becoming the senior consultant in D team it is an exaggeration to say that he saw "nearly every woman who came to the hospital with invasive cancer and many of those with the earlier or precursor stages", as was claimed around the time of the Inquiry.
He was concerned about risks of surgery leading to infertility, and Cartwright refers to him being "increasingly concerned at the number of young women undergoing hysterectomy for the disease (CIS) which he regarded as unnecessarily radical". Journalist Sandra Coney (1987) states that "He wanted to save women from mutilating surgery and to do so he had to prove what at first he had suspected and eventually came to believe: that CIS was a harmless disease which hardly, if ever, progressed to invasive cancer.".
Outside of his cervical cancer work he was an early proponent of the Pap smear, although not necessarily of population-based screening programmes. He was also anti-abortion, and opposed sterilisation without women's consent.