June 15, 2009
Never do business or medical experiments with friends and family
Practical Ethics: Not better than the alternative: an informal experimentation tragedy - I blog about the case of Yolanda Cox, who died of anaphylactic shock after being given an experimental drug treatment by her family.
While the media like to stress the life-extension angle of the drug, it was apparently intended to treat an ovarian condition.
In any case, the tragedy is a prime example of why it is risky to do experimental medicine on friends and family - the risk of groupthink and misplaced trust is great. Sometimes weak and formal links to other people protect us.
Posted by Anders3 at June 15, 2009 06:55 PMComments