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   Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2018; 9(1): 

 

 

Editorial for special issue on publication ethics, March 2018 
 

 
Dear Readers,  
 
Happy Summer Holidays for all of us up in the 

Northern Hemisphere.  While we are basking in 

the warmth of sunny days our friends in Australia 

are buying winter clothes. How strange is this 

world! And stranger are the creations who are 

supposed to look after all other organic and 

inorganic objects in this planet and maybe 

beyond. The simple virtues of ethical and value 

based behavior is often forgotten when we are 

focus on getting the best for ourselves without 

thinking or respecting the rights of others. The 

case of ethics in publication is not any different. 

We have few papers this issue but they are of 

extreme value and relevance: 

 

The paper by Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva titled 

‘Macchiarini Gate: The Fall from Grace of 

Stem Cell Healer, Paolo Macchiarini, and 

Clues and Concerns from the Early Literature 

that Cast Ethical Doubts ‘ is a real eye opener 

into the misconduct and ethical behavior of 

doctors to patients. This article  indeed  takes an 

important realistic look into what is happening in 

the medical innovation field and how authorities 

and patients are being fooled to believe in 

magical cures without and real scientific  

evidence, which are being manipulated to 

produce results for the financial benefit of a 

particular physician. The dream of being cured, 

without any pain is a very understandable 

emotion and belief which has been long existing 

from the very ancient times. Even now people 

believe in crystals and, remote places where the 

Fountain of Youth is believed to have existed. 

 

So Dr. Paolo Macchiarini , a tracheal surgeon in 

2008 became famous with the transplantation of  

a trachea from a dead body and  the patient’s  

stem cells to ‘regenerate’ new trachea.  Among 

the nine patients operated by Macchiarini, six had 

died. Allegations of misconduct against 

Macchiarini was filed in 2014 by the   Karolinska 

Institutet (KI) fellows and an independent 

investigation was launched. The Institute claimed 

that not only was the   procedure of high risk, 

patients information was incomplete and none or 

incomplete ethical approval were taken. This 

constitutes gross malpractice and misconduct. In 

2016, the results of the investigation came out 

and most of these allegations have been proven 

to be true, Macchiarini was found guilty and 

actions taken accordingly. 

 

This paper will be a real help to many modern day 

patients who are being lured into medical 

interventions with the promise of being cured. Yet 

none of them has been scientifically proved or 

received formal approval from any country’s 

medical regulatory boards like USFDA and 

others. The ethical norms and values of many 

physicians particularly the new fad of PRP and 

Stem Cells have been overcome by the greed for 

money, fame without caring about the patients’ 

real needs and taking advantage of their pain and 

dependence, when all reasons are ignored. Are 

these 1st world doctors better than the quacks in 

the bazaars of Bangladesh and India where a 

single powder of Taka 50 will cure you of all 

maladies from diabetes, infertility to cancer? 

Another interesting paper titled ‘Peer Review 

system: A Golden standard for publications 

process’ by Shamima Parvin Lasker looks 

deeply into the peer review process. How Peer 

review can help to improve an article, kinds peer 

review and also remuneration of reviewers. The 



   Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2018; 9(1): 

 

 

Hon’ble author is excellent in pointing out not only 

the need for in depth, un- biased peer reviews but 

also how paying to the reviewers could often lead 

to conflict of Interest. 

 The paper on ‘Basic Concept of Intellectual 

property Rights (IPRs)’ by Arif Hossain explores 

the gamut of Intellectual rights. The author states 

that different classifications of IPRs have been 

formulated to protect the original work and the 

credit of the author and researchers. These are 

patent, copy rights, license, trade mark, trade 

dress and trade secret. The author concludes that 

the basic knowledge about copyright and 

ownership of a publication is needed to avoid 

embarrassment and harassment. It seems 

actions in this is needed in terms of Knowledge 

and Information specially for the students and 

researchers. 

This paper concludes our publication for this 

issue and we are really proud to state that Quality 

has clearly outpaced Quantity in our cherished 

Bangladesh Journal of Bio Ethics. 

Have a Great summer/ winter and enjoy this 

lovely time with all. See you next issue with more 

interesting and insightful papers. 

Best Wishes 

Professor Tahera Ahmed 

Editor 
 


