Harvard and the National Institutes of Health are investigating whether Dr. Biederman violated federal and university research rules.
"It doesn't really stand up under research rules," says Roberts.
Mr. Grassley has also said that Dr. Biederman and Dr. Wilens might have violated federal and university research rules.
Moreover, there are no reported techniques for producing people (except for the time-honored one) and even if there were, European research rules ban human cloning.
Children who participate in medical research need special protection from risky or unethical studies, a government advisory group said, and it urged that federal research rules be applied to all pediatric studies.
One of the nation's leading psychiatrists, Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff of Emory University, is stepping down from research projects financed by the National Institutes of Health amid accusations that he violated federal research rules.
In late June, after Mr. Grassley singled out Dr. Schatzberg, Stanford disputed some of the numbers in the report and has denied that Dr. Schatzberg violated any research rules devised to police such conflicts.
A22 Penalizing Medical Lapses The Clinton administration said it would seek authority from Congress to levy fines of up to $250,000 on scientists who violate federal human research rules, and $1 million on the universities that employ them.
Re "Fines Proposed for Violations of Human Research Rules" (news article, May 24): The Clinton administration's proposal to levy fines on medical investigators found to violate federal human research rules is shortsighted and simplistic.
Dr. Otis W. Brawley, the society's chief medical officer, said any study underwritten by the organization must conform to federal research rules, including those that require that problems with informed consent be reported to federal science agencies.
