Sep 052009
 

Ho.

Lee.

She.

It.

http://homepage.mac.com/gerardharbison/blog/wosb.html

Largely unnoticed, Ezekiel Emanuel, President Obama’s ‘Special Advisor for Health Policy to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget’ recently published a paper with the above title, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 1, 2009). In it, Emanuel argues that individuals have an obligation to submit themselves to medical research experimentation. No, I’m not kidding.

Individuals have an obligation to participate in biomedical research because the knowledge produced by the system of biomedical research is what economists call a “public good.”

and

Individuals ought to participate in clinical trials when presented with the option. Well-functioning institutional review boards ensure that the risks are not excessive relative to the benefits of research. When the risks are significant, the obligation may be weaker. The obligation to participate applies to both healthy volunteers and patients. Both are needed to advance biomedical knowledge. For patients, there is an obligation to agree to participate in a study involving their condition when appropriate. Healthy individuals should participate in a fair share of the research for which they are eligible and needed.

This administration is coming off like a bad fricken’ joke, or like the sort of two-dimensional scumbags from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” But sadly, they are not a joke, they are not fiction. They are the real deal.

 Posted by at 7:12 pm

  8 Responses to “‘The Obligation to Participate in Biomedical Research’”

  1. Why doesn’t this shit hit CNN? Can you imagine if Cheny had said something like this? We’d be hearing about the frickin’ Nazi Doctors and Mengele.

  2. >Why doesn’t this shit hit CNN?

    Because they don’t care.

    Tell all your friends. Link to this post on blogs and political fora. Call in to Glenn Beck or NPR or whatever.

  3. Hey, I’ve got a great idea! How about we do an experiment where we infect a bunch of black men with syphilis and see what happens! It’s for the public good after all.

  4. And people want these a$$holes to be IN CHARGE of our medical industry.

    Scott? I’ll be moving this over to http://sayanythingblog.com/ on the readerblogs.

  5. And Euro-peon media is telling us that everybody loves Obama and that Obama is so great and… bla bla bla bla…

    To Ezekiel Emanuel I can only say: Yeah? Ok, you first. Lead by example, like all the really great leaders have done so in the past.

  6. “This administration is coming off like a bad fricken’ joke, or like the sort of two-dimensional scumbags from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” But sadly, they are not a joke, they are not fiction. They are the real deal.”

    She always said that she wrote the book in an attempt to keep it from becoming prophetic….

  7. In that, Rand failed. I first read Atlas Shrugged about 2 years ago, and it was pretty spooky at the time… and only getting more so.

  8. Now ,in the past, vaccines were tested without permission IIRC.

    Now we have such technophobes to where I think we may have to return to those times.

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