… speaking from a psychiatric ward in Canberra last night …
there may be an ethical concern.
I honestly don’t know what else to say. A traditional, commercial media outlet, thought it appropriate not only to interview a patient in a psychiatric hospital ward, but to report “confessions” made in that interview. Bravo.
UPDATE: Editor of The Punch, David Penberthy, tells me that the problem is “only at [my] end” and asks “Isn’t he allowed to put his side? He thinks he was used. He has every right to speak out.”
So let me be clear. Godwin Grech may well have “concocted” the email that has been at the centre of the recent political controversies. He may well want to talk about the external pressures he has been placed under. But at the moment he is receiving medical treatment, in a psychiatric hospital ward – which indicates, to any rational person, that he may not be capable of giving informed consent to anything, let alone an interview where he confesses to producing a fake email.
But then David Penberthy asks, “are you saying the guy can’t speak out if he feels that he was used?” I would suggest that it doesn’t matter what he feels at the moment – as a person receiving treatment, perhaps we should wait until afterward and see whether, after psychiatric treatment, he says he wants to speak out? Whatever happened to the notion of informed consent?
Can a person consent to an interview if they are receiving treatment for their (maladaptive) psychological functioning? It seems David Penberthy believes they can, while I tend to disagree. Put your view in the comments.
UPDATE #2: The Australian has all of the details on Mr Grech’s health status – straight from Mr Grech.
14 Comments
I suppose it depends on which alternative personality is confessing.
A shocking call from Murdoch’s spare-parts puppet.
Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that My Grech is suffering major depression and displaying anxiey disorders. If he is staying in a hospital, his medications and his mental state would be constantly reviewed. Now some of those mothers-little-helpers and, God Forbid, ECT treatments can have the tendency to really turn someone’s mind, like a tap, to the ‘off’ position.
To be exclusively interviewed by the foot-in-door vultures and then printed is beneath contempt. I would put money on it that at a later stage Mr Gtrech will have a great deal of trouble remembering what he told ole ‘foot in the door’ with regards to the interview. Buy the paperwork they would have made him sign will hopefully cover their hairy arses.
How those guys sleep at night amazes me.
Can a person consent to an interview if they are receiving treatment for their (maladaptive) psychological functioning?
Unlikely, unless a treating physician has declared him/her capable of giving informed consent, or a responsible person does so on their behalf. there is an evidence base around psych patients consenting to participate in research and interviews with legal and medical authorities, but i haven’t seen anything that discusses their consent to interviews with the media.
Penberthy forgets that the AFP inquiries are still continuining – could there be consequences for any legal defence as a result of grech “speaking out”?
Piping Shrike has his usual savvy analysis.
http://www.pipingshrike.com/2009/08/st-godwin-v-the-political-class.html
on the plus side he had a bowel obstruction
which I’m sure hanging around Malcolm and Erica
would alleviate
The Australian’s coverage today is incredible. That they seem to accept at face value Grech’s claim that forging an email intended to bring down the government was simply an error of judgement is astonishing.
There was something wonderful though about reading John Howard laud a self-confessed forger:
Mr Howard told The Australian: “Godwin Grech always tried to understand what the government wanted and then advised the best way of doing it — even if you were straying from pure, optimum policy.”
Indeed.
I guess if I was caught fabricating something that would later be analysed in the media and the subject of an investigation, I would be depressed too. Did he not think of the possible consequences?? Don’t do things you shouldn’t and you won’t have to deal with the consequences. Worked for me thus far.
“n the plus side he had a bowel obstruction
which I’m sure hanging around Malcolm and Erica
would alleviate”
Once again a comment that says more about the commenter than the intended topic.
Baldrick, I agree that Grech seems to have put himself into the predicament he’s in, and I can’t imagine that it hasn’t contributed to his health problems. But now that he is in a vulnerable condition, I don’t see that it matters how he got there – I would have thought journalists might consider that his capacity to agree to make on the record admissions is compromised. As confessions noted, that decision could have legal implications.
But The Australian had no problem reporting it and pretty much every media outlet I’ve accessed today is happy to talk about the political ramifications – making mention of Grech’s “serious illness” or that he gave the interview from hospital, but not questioning the appropriateness of someone conducting that interview. It seems the first priority is to get the story; ethical considerations rate a distant second.
It sounds like Grech is laying the foundations for his victimhood status here, whilst still swiping at Labor.
“He says his poor health was well-known to senior Treasury officials — from Secretary Ken Henry down — and that he was prone to developing small bowel obstructions”
Don’t you find that just a little bit funny?
It’s not my fault I fell apart and tried to bring down the government, it’s Treasury for making me work too hard. Those bastards knew I couldn’t poo!
He should have taken responsibility for his own health before it became a mental health problem.
Chistery is quite correct; at the end of the day we all need to take responsibility for our own health and blaming others, especially in the face of clearly self-destructive behaviour, won’t do your cause any good.
In this case, in fact, it has only served to reinforce the impression that this is a man seriously out of his depth and that anyone with any nous could see he was {derogatory statements about character removed – Toby}.
He should have taken responsibility for his own health before it became a mental health problem.
You can take responsibility for your own health and still fall victim to mental health issues. One does not negate the other.
As for work being a contributing factor to his health (both physical and mental) — while it is the person’s responsibility to look after their own health, if an employer gives their employees unnaturally high workloads that result in health issues, then they should also take some of the blame. And should they not give a damn about the health of their employees, they should when it comes to the bottom line, given that unhealthy employees cost the company more money. Yes, Treasury is a government department, but they still have a budget.
@michelle: people with chronic disease often have co-morbid mental health issues, regardless of their work or work stress. But yes, working 85hrs a week as he claims is preposterous and would drive anyone mad.
there is another complication wrt teh consent issue here. On the news tonight they reported that the AFP inquiry has been made difficult due to Gretch’s hospitalisation, which I interpret as the AFP can’t interview him now he’s in a psych ward. But he’s done interviews with the media! The issue for me here is twofold:
1. the Australian relying on the contents of an interview of someone who is being treated for a psychiatric condition is one for them to explain to their readers as to credibility and reliability of material.
2. any legal fall out for grech as a consequence of his The Australian interviews while allegedly keeping the AFP at bay, and the extent to which his legal defence can use his mental health to attack that fallout when he was prepared to speak to the media but to reportedly use hospitalisation to delay the AFP inquiry.
Either the guy has a real savvy legal advisor with expertise in working with the mental health act, the AFP have rules about conducting interviews with people admitted to hospital, Grech actually does believe he is a “player” as posited by bernard keane in todays crikey and keeping himself in the play using the most extraordinary of ways, or his mental health is clouding his judgement so that he is acting in ways detrimentle to his actual legal position.
The guy is unwell, and if the australian article listing all his health complaints is true, then life for Grech must be hell – renal failure is no picnic and he can look forward to a liftetime of dialysis treatment. He’s almost certain to lose his job and if reports about him in the immediate wake of utegate are true, he was one of those people whose life revolved around work. With no family, no support network, no job and a physical and mental illness to boot, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him. The Australian are using him as eyeball fodder for their paper that’s all. On the other side of the ledger all the other people who acted in self interest in this affair have all kept their jobs, with people like Abetz and Steve Lewis no longer have any scrutiny at all on them.