Anthro notes at center of lawsuit

Penn medical anthropologist Sheldon Zink has been fighting off subpoenas from local lawyers requesting her to turn over her field notes on an artificial heart transplant into a man who died following surgery. Zink, director of transplant policy and ethics at Penn's Center for Bioethics, acted as a researcher observing a clinical trial of artificial heart transplantation starting in February 2001. She was in the operating room at Hahnemann University Hospital on Nov. 5, 2001, when James Quinn, one of the volunteers in the clinical trial, received an artificial heart. She was also the patient's advocate during the last two months of his life. When Quinn died nine months after the transplant, his widow filed lawsuits against Hahnemann, AbioCor -- the maker of the artificial heart -- and Quinn's original patient advocate, Professor of Geriatrics David Casarett, whom Zink replaced upon the Quinn family's requests, as well as other hospitals. Hahnemann University Hospital spokesperson Molly Tritt said that the suit against the hospital was filed on Oct. 17, 2002. At that point, the hospital issued a statement saying, "We are disappointed that Mrs. Quinn decided to sue us. James Quinn was a true American hero. We trust his contribution to the treatment of heart disease will benefit patients for years to come." Because of Zink's presence throughout the procedure, both Casarett's attorney Thomas Wagner and Hanhemann's attorney Timothy McCann filed subpoenas requesting that Zink turn over her field notes to the court. However, she refused to do so, arguing that she must protect the patient's rights to privacy. "I think it's a trust issue with researchers in the field, and [sharing field notes] would impact the way we do our research," Zink said. "It would put the research subject in jeopardy, and we should protect them as much as we can." The American Anthropological Association does have a code of ethics stating that "anthropological researchers must do everything in their power to ensure that their research does not harm the safety, dignity or privacy of the people with whom they work, conduct research or perform other professional activities." Zink said she believes that she is just following this code. "There is not a circumstance that I can fathom that I would ever give over my ethnographic notes to anyone," she said. According to Zink, five subpoenas have been filed. One, filed by Casarett's lawyer, was withdrawn on Monday, and an additional four were filed by McCann. Zink said while the deadlines of the subpoenas filed by McCann have all lapsed, "none of them have been withdrawn," and she thinks that McCann will reinstate them. "I have no reason to believe that even if subpoenas are canceled right now that they won't be reinstated," Zink said. "None of these guys have ever picked up the phone and talked to me," Zink added, mentioning that McCann had called her once and was "intimidating" and "threatening." Wagner confirmed that the subpoena against Zink had been withdrawn earlier this week. It originally held a deadline of Wednesday. "The subpoena on Dr. Zink was to get her notes because she was observing Mr. Quinn's care while my client was working with Mr. Quinn," Wagner said. Wagner said that the notes might be helpful in the lawsuit against Casarett because Zink "closely observed Mr. Quinn's care," and her notes might help him defend his client. However, Wagner said that he withdrew the subpoena "after we learned of Dr. Zink's strong objections." "I don't want to be hostile," Wagner said. "I want to work the issue out." "Whether we ever get to the point where we'll serve it again I don't know, but I suspect that we will eventually succeed in working it out," he added. McCann said that he had previously filed a subpoena against Zink but had canceled it. "We don't anticipate needing her notes or sending her another subpoena," McCann said. But Zink said she expects continued pressure to turn over her notes and believes that the subpoenas had not been canceled. The case has drawn national attention from anthropologists and others who want to make sure that field notes are kept private. Zink's students and colleagues have started a Web site called FreeSheldon.org, and other anthropologists have signed petitions supporting Zink's decision to go against the subpoenas, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. A statement posted on the Web site states, "Forced disclosure of field notes, tapes and transcriptions endangers the academic freedom safeguarded by the First Amendment. This jeopardizes all of academic research, as well as our ability to disseminate information for the public good. All future anthropological research is being threatened."