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lconnell962yesterday at 9:56 PM6 repliesview on HN

An article about the complicated issue that is a child with a non-lethal developmental disorder getting a treatment that ends with the tragedy of the headline. The article might be sensationalizing the situation, but it makes the doctor out like a monster and as the facts read I can't say I disagree.

That the treatment was inconclusive in the animal studies isn't particularly shocking. The brain is one of the more complicated parts of a human body after all. Ethics and safty concerns seemed to get ignored all the way to the actual treatment speaks like the money and potential fame was all the medical staff involved were concerned with. The parent's aren't blameless, they wanted to fix a child who probably would have lived with a below average quality of life. The article claims they were mislead to believe this treatment was safer than it actually was.

The treatment vehicle seems like the cause of death as reported toward the end, but there are words about the animal testing that imply this could have been a known risk with the treatment as a whole. The number of things being found with hindsight remind me of "move fast and break things" development. It really sounds like cutting edge (bio)tech has ethics get ignored when money and fame are on the table.


Replies

throwway120385yesterday at 10:01 PM

I didn't read it as making the doctor a monster. What I saw in the story is an example of how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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taurathyesterday at 10:13 PM

> The number of things being found with hindsight remind me of "move fast and break things" development.

It is the same mentality in all of business rn, everyone is ruthless and doesn’t give a single fuck about consequences because they won’t be coming for another 2 years at least and people have a short memory

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streetfighter64yesterday at 10:11 PM

> It really sounds like cutting edge biotech has ethics get ignored when money and fame are on the table.

Wouldn't be the first time. Nor the first time the actual evidence of effectiveness of the treatment (i.e. even when working as intended) was ignored.

micromacrofootyesterday at 10:19 PM

Wealth can override pretty much anything; ethics, decency, common sense. This is a lesson humans have had thousands of years and countless examples to learn from and still haven't managed.

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395trekyesterday at 10:54 PM

kinda sounds like in vivo test driven dev