Posted on 01/05/2007 7:34:46 PM PST by cryptical
Medical tourism is accelerating, as well it should. Advancing biotechnology, computing power and materials science means that (a) the practice of good medicine is coming down to pretty much the cost of regulation plus the cost of the people running the show, and (b) many more regions of the world have the technology base, medical community and level of economic success to do the job well.
A Filipino doctor has partnered with a Hong Kong-based company to give his countrymen hope in experiencing renewed health and strength with autologous stem cell transplants. There is so much controversy surrounding stem-cell research because of cloning issues but plastic and cosmetic surgeon Dr. Florencio Lucero believes that autologous transplants will not only help Filipinos but also enhance medical tourism in the Philippines. In fact, he said less than a fourth of his over 20 stem cell patients are Filipinos.
This sort of thing is "eat your lunch out from under you" competition for the biotechnology and medical industries of over-regulated US and Europe. Here, competition is relatively muted, squashed beneath the regulatory burden of patents, trials, compliance with a thousand inane laws. Those comparative few who source enough capital make it past the regulatory costs move into the realm of protectionist policies and short term gain - the barrier now behind them is the fence against competition, and it is in their interest to keep that fence high. A high fence means high profits and less of a need to try anything new and better to keep the money coming in.
Let me say this: human beings are damn lazy when there isn't a spear prodding them in the back. It's our nature. Competition is that spear, the serious threat of your profits and edges vanishing elsewhere, forcing you to inventively accomplish more and better for less. Competition is the alchemical weapon that transforms all the worst aspects of human nature into tools to bring progress to all as rapidly and cheaply as possible. The more aggressive, open and unrestricted the competition, the better the resulting service is for the customers - folk like you and I.
So we should all be very pleased to see Asian biotech and medical entrepreneurs eating the very lunch out from underneath late-stage researchers and new businesses in the US and Europe. It's the only way that those insulated folk inside the regulatory fence are going to feel any meaningful pressure to help tear it down - and thus better serve us over the long term.
I am all for biotech, but I cannot see how anyone could be for biotech WITHOUT any kind of regulation.
That is just plain crazy.
You're a fan of big government?
No, but I am a fan of big brother
No, but I am not a fan of unrestricted medical experimentation on humans.
Do you think a poor filipino should be able to sell his living body for research purposes? Or his organs? Are you a fan of that?
Whose organs are they anyway?
Are they his, or are they yours?
bump & a ping
That isn't the question. Do you think it is ethical to allow an entity to be able to legally gain access to another persons organs for monetary gain?
Here is a hypothetical situation: Say a person has an affair, and having it get out would be the worst thing that could happen to them.
A party that needs an organ for either transplantation/experimentation, or that needs a subject for a biomedical experiment contacts them and threatens to inform his/her spouse unless they give up one of their kidneys or subject themselves to a biomedical experiment.
They say that you would get paid good money...your spouse wouldn't know, and...you have two kidneys and can function just fine with one.
To the legal authorities, this is an otherwise perfectly permissible transaction. Is it ethical to allow people to get into this situation? If not, how would you prevent it?
Extortion is not "a perfectly permissible transaction" in any country developed enough to even think about trying to regulate biotech and medical research. But should a researcher be allowed to offer a poor person money or other needed medical treatments in exchange for allowing him/herself to be experimented on? Of course. Why should the government be allowed to set the poor person's priorities?
It is unethical to promote an environment where vulnerable people can and will be easily preyed upon by those who have the power to do so.
If you don't think that would happen, you have never seen a person who needs a liver transplant waiting for it.
If I understand you correctly, you do not think there should be any regulation on this at all. If so, a needy person who may have mouths to feed could be offered money to take part in a drug trial, which results in the painful prolonged death of that person who is released back to his family to die. His family will have no recourse. None. They will have the money which could be $20 or $200,000.
If you think what I have just outlined is completely within the rights of both the person getting paid and the people doing the paying, then you and I have a basic difference that is insurmountable.
If you agree that the situation outlined is intolerable, then we agree, is is just a matter of degree that we may disagree on.
Bump
The whole issue would be resolved if, in order to receive a donated organ, adults would have to already be registered as donors (prior to the diagnosis).
"In order to get, you have to be willing to give" is a simple protocol and would easily resolve the issues surrounding organ transplants.
That seems reasonable to me.
However, after having worked for 25 years in the medical field...the first time someone came up who needed an organ who was not a donor...it just wouldn't apply. I can see the sob story headline now: "Medical Center refuses lifesaving procedure to the father of family..."
There is that potential, I agree.
I thik it can be countered by having a good deal of coverage and a well publicized registration period prior to the intitiation of the protocol.
Plus I wouldn't actually refuse a non-donor, I'd just put them at the bottom of the potential recipient list. That way no organs wold go to waste and there'd be a clear cut, good reason why the guy didn't get the transplant: someone else did.
It is also my hope that such a protocol would result in so many organs being potentially available tat the subject wouldn't arise.
The god of Free Market will not be denied!
Excellent idea! It would be fair to the supporters and opponents of organ transplants.
Thank you.
I wish I had the organizing skills to promote it effectively. A lot of lives might be saved.
I disagree. Would you rather have the FDA killing thousands if not more of American citizens each year?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.