{"id":12381,"date":"2013-12-18T11:45:01","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T11:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=12381"},"modified":"2013-12-18T11:45:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T11:45:01","slug":"wouter-basson-found-guilty-of-unethical-conduct-by-hpcsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=12381","title":{"rendered":"Wouter Basson found guilty of &#8216;unethical conduct&#8217; by HPCSA"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_392\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-392\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/basson_wouter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-392\" alt=\"Wouter Basson\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/basson_wouter-300x190.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/basson_wouter-300x190.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/basson_wouter.jpg 630w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Wouter Basson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dr Wouter Basson, who headed the previous Defence Force&#8217;s chemical warfare section, was found guilt of unprofessional conduct by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) today.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;In the light of all the circumstances, the breaches amount to unprofessional conduct&#8230; the respondent is guilty of unprofessional conduct,&#8221; HPCSA professional conduct committee chairman Prof Jannie Hugo said in Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ruling by the council comes after protracted attempts to prosecute Basson for his role in South Africa&#8217;s chemical warfare defense initiatives. Basson has maintained throughout that the previous government had developed a defensive capability in the face of chemical weapons being used by the Soviet Union, East German, Cuba and other Warsaw Pact nations during the Angolan war.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, Prof. Jannie Hugo said that Basson &#8220;had contravened international protocals and conventions. The\u00a0respondent confused ethics of a doctor with that of a soldier while discharging his duties. A doctor cannot rely on military orders to escape the consequences of his duties.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a protracted criminal court case which went on appeal to the Constitutional Court and cost the government R50 million, Basson was found not guilty of any offense.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Basson practises as a cardiologist in Cape Town where he is lauded by his patients. Depending on what sanctions the\u00a0HPCSA is going to apply against him, he could lose the right to practise as a doctor. The body&#8217;s decision will be made known in 20 and 21 February 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Wouter Basson, who headed the previous Defence Force&#8217;s chemical warfare section, was found guilt of unprofessional conduct by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) today. &#8220;In the light of all the circumstances, the breaches amount to unprofessional conduct&#8230; the respondent is guilty of unprofessional conduct,&#8221; HPCSA professional conduct committee chairman Prof Jannie Hugo &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=12381\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Wouter Basson found guilty of &#8216;unethical conduct&#8217; by HPCSA&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[3983,1347,328],"class_list":["post-12381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-chemical-warfare","tag-hpcsa","tag-wouter-basson"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/basson_wouter.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12382,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions\/12382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}