--- Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote: > Deborah Harrell wrote: > > > Viruses are really interesting, and a bit scary, > to > > study. If anyone's curious, I could find a site > or two to post. > > > > Insinuated Into Our Genes Maru > > At the moment I find gene therapy a bit scary. > Especially after watching > a documentary about how especially in the US (one of > the leading > countries doing research in that area) the amount of > intertwinement > between financial benefit and research causes really > big problems for > patients. You cannot trust the doc because he might > gain a couple a > billions from you getting the one lucky treatment. > If you don't, ah well > tough luck. What shocked me even more is that even > after such a tangle, > resulting in dire consequences for a patient is > found, there is nothing > much done about it except maybe a little slap on the > wrist and some bad > publicity. I find that very disturbing and not very > trust inspiring for the future. <snip>
Unfortunately, when 'big bucks' are at stake, ethics and common sense seem to be expendable or in short supply; part of the reason I'm not practicing clinical medicine right now is my disgust with the HMO mentality. You really have to fight for your patients to get proper care, and it is difficult to keep that energy level in a 60-hour week (at least for me, but I will admit that that level of hostility really exhausts me - I know others who are able to shrug it off, however). I agree that gene therapy has great potential for good, but ought to be regulated carefully. I'm pretty sure that the University (Pennsylvania?) that was involved in the gene therapy death of recent note had its permit to conduct such research pulled; I do remember reading some debate in the journals about tighter regulations. Welcome to Corporate Medicine. Debbi who recently, while perusing the Goodwill's shelves, found an old SF paperback about 'when the world will be taken over by the Medicos!' and doctors make all decisions - hilarious blurb! But I didn't buy it... __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
