I think perhaps we are talking past each other. I certainly agree that there should be rules for conducting research on human subjects and that there should be

I think perhaps we are talking past each other. I certainly agree that there should be rules for conducting research on human subjects and that there should be a process for independent review of said research. I'm just saying that in this case the people tasked with doing the reviewing did a really bad job. And it seems like, from other things I've read, this sort of bad job isn't exactly uncommon. It would be great if the people in charge of this stuff could reform the system so that IRBs did a bad job less often.