A pill they won't swallow

Boston University medical students Chen Kenyon (right) and Dustin Petersen discuss their opposition to doctors accepting freebies from pharmaceutical companies.

Their pens read "PharmFree," which means they don't take personal gifts of any size from the pharmaceutical industry. And that is touching off a quiet ethics war reverberating through the halls of academia and hospitals across the country. Messrs. Kenyon and Petersen are among a growing band of stethoscope-wearing students who believe the medical profession needs more detachment from big pharmaceutical firms.

(Drug companies seem to be finding plenty of takers though: spending on marketing to physicians jumped from $12.1 billion in 1999 to $22 billion in 2003 ($16 billion of which was in free samples)