The follow-up care of patients with total ablation of the thyroid also appears inadequate. Some had stopped theirsmedicine because of side reactions and appear hypothyroid to my eyes. No regular follow-up has been pursued to allow change of thyroid medication, or increase or decrease of dosage. A general feeling of distrust of the Treaty Trust and Atomic Energy Commission physicians is wide-spread among the Marshallese. The people of the Marshall Islands I spoke to have no-great faith in these physicians, do not consider them devoted to their interests, but instead representing the interests of the Atomic Energy Commission or the Trust Treaty authorities, and were reluctant to place their health in their hands, -although they finally did so for want of any other ade- Guate facilities supplied by the Treaty Trust Organization. I am also impressed with the failure of the physicians to communicate findings and prognosis to the people of these islands. Each patient is entitled to have his questions answered. cf the lesion discovered, nosis should be given. and, Ee should be told the nature if he asks for it, The doctor should, a prog- when he can, inform the patient of the cause of his illness. These basic rights of a patient have been in larce part ignored in the Marshall Islands, and 1 found very few Narshallese who were acquainted with the nature of their pathology. I reject firmly the thought that the people were too primitive or uneducated, to absorb such information, since I have found this not to be true. Among them are educated and intelligent leaders who would be able to @igest such information and form their own conclusions about what the islands, its vecetation, its culture has suffered. its people, and I have planned conversations with Americans in this area of various expertise who would be useful in understanding the course of food-chain radiation and its injuries, as well as the complex picture of fallout injury. Some of these conversations have been started, correspondence is already uncer way. and some of the I am writing to you instead of delivering an oral report so that you may use this written report to demon. iil -