Live human science experiment?

Question

After I found out my friend was related to someone who you can check out my last posts to see, she told me that she wishes there were no laws in place currently to protect ill people from being the subject of scientific experimentation. SHe claims there would be many more cures, and if 5 died now, you may save 100 in the future. She says that wouldn't be a big deal then. She works in medical research at a hospital and is going to be a clinician as well within a couple of years. How do I get her to see that is crazy? How do you rationalize with someone like that?

Answer 1

Given your past postings, it sounds like you are now whipping yourself into a frenzy and imagining conversations. You need to see competent psychiatric help for this problem.

Answer 2

That's like saying "We don't care if you want to live just a little longer. We're taking your life so others can live a LOT longer." So those 100 that live justifies the 5 lives that were taken? Those 5 might want to stay with their families, so they can say goodbye properly and stuff. And I wonder if those 100 would know that 5 died to save them? I mean, they might think "Oh, that's sad, but I didn't know them, so it doesn't matter." Hypothetically speaking:
A girl had a coma. Her best friend visited everyday. One day, the best friend found out she had problems with both kidneys. The girl in the coma had really good organs, so the doctors decided to take them from her (Hey, she won't wake up anyway, right? Not). The friend got the kidneys and went back to visiting the girl with the coma. She had heard after her operation that the donor had died after the operation. She had felt sad when she heard that, but not completely sad. She entered her friend's room. It was empty. She asks a nearby nurse "What happened to the girl with the coma here?". The nurse says "She died in a kidney transplant. The doctors knew she didn't have much a chance of waking up, so what was the point of wasting those good organs? Besides, weren't you the one who got them? Be happy YOU'RE alive." and walked off.
Yes, but what price did she have to pay? Seriously, people think it's not that bad, but if you really think about it, it is. AND that goes against the human rights law. Tell your friend that story. Ask her "How would you feel if 1 of those 5 people were you or a family member?" and then let's see what she thinks.

Answer 3

Well, let's start with who would be experimented on. History tells us it will be the poor and disenfranchised. What about Joseph Mengele? Is she saying that he was right in what he did to the jews under his control in WWII? No one has the right to cause suffering in another person without their consent. Each of those five people had a life of their own. They have families, friends, a place in society. It doesn't matter if a thousand people in the future live, they don't have any more importance in the long run than the five that died. Ask her also, how would she feel if she were the one taken advantage of. What if it were her mother, or child, or you for that matter. If she can't see where that idea is so wrong, I would be sorely tempted to contact her superiors with what you have asked here. I don't think she could pass a medical ethics board and I sure wouldn't want her to be my doctor.

Answer 4

She sounds pretty rational to me. Rational = logical. Logically 100 lives outweighs 5.

On the other hand {emotionally} you would feel it's wrong to mess with the lives of those 5.

Answer 5

Sounds like your "friend" is some 60+ years too late. She'd work well with the Nazis although they weren't necessarily looking for cures.

Answer 6

She seems to be mentally ill, maybe we should start with her life.