''FIRST, do no harm'' is a basic tenet of the medical profession. A new book, ''The Death of Innocents: A True Story of Murder, Medicine and High-Stakes Science'' by a husband-and-wife team of journalists, Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan, details case histories where physicians, blinded by ambition and dogma, colluded in the worst kind of harm -- the deaths of helpless, healthy babies.

The 632-page book, published by Bantam in September, docuмents how specialists in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) unwittingly provided cover-up for uncounted infanticides. By propagating faulty theories and methods of treatment, the doctors allowed child abuse to go undetected and unremedied.