Following a disputed reviewof a paper submitted to this journal the present paper seeks to raise the profile of some of the issuesinvolved when the research community engages with vulnerable people. The paper is unashamedly polemical. Itargues that this is a dangerous time for vulnerable people and that current protections are inadequate. Thepaper suggests the need to re-evaluate the whole relationship between the scientific community and vulnerablepeople but also tries to identify some practical and immediate improvements that could be made.