Paul Patten has jumped to the wrong conclusion in his 30 July 2010 letter published in the NZMJ. My reference to ‘the particular relationship ... with gynaecologists whose work she was researching’ was not a reference to Professor Mantell and Dr Baird, as a close reading will show and as I have already acknowledged to Dr Baird.

Professor Skegg wrote his own chapter in The Cartwright Papers. So did I. To condemn each of these chapters because we work in the same university is an odd basis for response. I suggest that it is better to read the chapters and make up one’s own mind.