Obituary: Dennis Bonham

Obstetrician and gynaecologist. Died aged 80

Dennis Geoffrey Bonham headed the post-graduate school of obstetrics and gynaecology at National Women's Hospital for two decades and was professor in these disciplines at Auckland University.

But he is best remembered for his part in what became known as "the unfortunate experiment at National Women's Hospital" which led to charges of disgraceful conduct.

Bonham's colleague Herbert Green led the cancer treatment programme at National Women's and Bonham headed the committee which approved a cervical cancer management programme.

This programme, which ran from 1966 to 1986, used conservative treatment of patients with carcinoma in situ, which can lead to invasive cancer.

The programme did not include intervention in the treatment, and hysterectomies and deep biopsies were not believed to be necessary.

An article in Metro magazine, written by Sandra Coney and Phillida Bunkle, sparked an inquiry headed by then Judge Silvia Cartwright into the treatment women were receiving.

Evidence was presented at the inquiry that women had not been told of treatment options, that medical students had been performing internal examinations on anaesthetised women without their permission, and that vaginal swabs were being taken from newborn girls without permission.

When the report on the inquiry was released, charges of disgraceful conduct were laid against Green and Bonham, with lesser charges against two other doctors. After a Medical Council hearing in 1990, Bonham was censured and fined.

Bonham was born in London in 1924, and graduated in medicine at University College Hospital.

He was appointed to Auckland University in 1963 and became head of the post-graduate school at National Women's in 1968.

He undertook nationwide research into the numbers of mothers and babies lost at childbirth and published a number of papers on the subject.

He had liberal views on abortion, expressed to the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion in 1976.

This did not endear him to the government of the day, and he was dismissed from his post as the Health Department consultant in obstetrics.

In 1983 Bonham was instrumental in developing a "test-tube baby" project at National Women's, with colleague Freddy Graham.

The first child, whose identity was protected, was born in 1984.

Bonham was publicly critical of the slow advances in cancer research world-wide.

Addressing a group of specialists in 1976, he said, "It is possible to remotely land a television camera on Mars and seven years ago we put a man on the moon but we haven't really made any progress with cancer".

Bonham was awarded an OBE in 1971. He retired in 1988.