3 ms·

As an Australian, i.e. someone who lives in a country which doesn't assume that being poor is a good enough reason for someone to be allowed to die. As well as

As an Australian, i.e. someone who lives in a country which doesn't assume that being poor is a good enough reason for someone to be allowed to die. As well as the brother of a scientist who often runs experiments involving the synthesis of new drugs, I had a torrent of extreme reactions to seeing that this site exists. 1. My immediate reaction was holy shit no, if a situation exists where your countrymen are trying to hack together potentially lethal drugs and medical procedures because you don't have facilities in place to save them, then whatever political decisions you are making, whatever trade deals you are signing, whatever wars you are fighting: stop ALL OF THAT SHIT AND FIX THIS FIRST. 2. Oh my god what a terrible way to die. I understand that this site is probably well-intentioned. I know that for someone with access to a pharmaceutical lab and who has experience in the small-scale manufacture of drugs intended for consumption by living creatures (experiments) including humans (clinical trials) it may make sense that we could just synthesise our own drugs. But failing to recognise that there are very real and very likely scenarios where people will die because you (or someone with your expertise) are not on hand to help them immediately if they fuck up. I can't help but think that the existence of this site is a net harm to the world, there's just no way the risk calculation is the same between a chemical engineer and a regular chap who needs medication as to the possibility of just making it at home. Making it seem like this is a thing you think that you should do just sounds like bad advice. But on the other hand, I'm so appalled by the ability of America as a nation to do terrible things such as let its citizens die from treatable illness, that this kind of makes sense. It just feels like the wrong problem to be solving. I mean, how about focusing on fixing the broken medical system, avoiding killing all the people who aren't white and making it just a little harder for insane people to get guns. While you're at it, you might even want to try and drop "racist as shit" from the assumptions of the rest of the world about your country.

ianai 9y ago
This is awful in that sense. But maybe it paves a way for viable market entry for otherwise professionally staffed organizations? Ie a knowledge base they don’t have to pay a license to access. But that’s me groping for an upside. This speaks more than anything I could come up with what’s wrong with the current industry.
fjsolwmv 9y ago
Perhaps you should show some gratitude to the Americans who paid for the invention of all the drugs you enjoy. And maybe work on your country's persecution of homosexuals and aboriginals before you get on your high horse and point it at America.
- tentaTherapist 9y ago
  Can you and GP please avoid turning this into a battle to see which is the worse country?
  - throwingerman 9y ago
    It's sad that the GP's post is showing support for Americans by pointing out that they should all have health care, and someone is triggered into believing it was an attack.
  - hvindin 9y ago
    Probably should have thought about it a bit more before I put my first point first. The major problem I have is with the implication that you can make your own drugs at home and it's safe, secondarily it's pretty concerning that there's actually a reader base for this information due to the countries healthcare system.
- mangamadaiyan 9y ago
  All of the drugs? Drug discovery isn't solely owned by a single country, I would think. There is truth in the GP's comment. The fact that the country in which the GP resides has its own troubles should not preclude them from talking about that of yours. Edit: s/parent/GP/g
- pls2halp 9y ago
  > gratitude to the Americans who paid for the invention of all the drugs you enjoy Pharmaceutical companies are paid just as much per unit in Australia. It's just funded by the taxpayer, under the assumption that healthy people will eventually pay tax. > your country's persecution of homosexuals and aboriginals I dunno, we've only had one major race riot this century(six total on Wikipedia)[1], whereas the Wikipedia article for 'Mass racial violence in the United States' has eight in the same time period, and quite a few occurrences of 'This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.'[2] In terms of government action, we had a government apology(from the PM too, not just a motion passed) to the aboriginals before you had one to slaves(again, it wasn't done by a president). We haven't needed to apologise to slaves since they were either repatriated or properly integrated into society(again, one race riot this century). In terms of homosexuality, Australia has possibly 88 murders of this nature[3], and no Wikipedia article dedicated to it[4], with approximately 150 instances since 1969(including a few mass shootings, which are a uniquely American problem). There has been some recent anti-gay propaganda, but that's due to a public vote on gay marriage, which is the sort of thing that would inflame divisions. Somehow, the argument has been on the suitability of homosexuals to raise children, and the risk of religious freedoms being restricted by poorly written legislation. We haven't had any signs saying "god hates fags" though. I think Australia's doing pretty well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_violence_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_violence_in_Australia [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_Un... [3]https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/australia/australia-gay-men-killed-suicides-sydney.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/australia/australia... [4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LGBT_people_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LG...
QAPereo 9y ago
What’s the average life expectancy of an aboriginal Australian? How’s Tony Abbot doing, and how’s the weather in a detention camp in Papua New Guinea this time of year?
- pls2halp 9y ago
  1) 67.2 years for males, and 72.9 years for females[1], as opposed to 73.7 years for American Indians and Alaska Natives[2]. 2) He's gone, and resigned to having fun on talkback radio. 3) Cloudy today, but it's being shut down[3]. [1]http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter218Oct+2010 http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter... [2]https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/ https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/ [3]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-26/refugees-told-to-leave-manus-island-detention-centre/8745172 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-26/refugees-told-to-leave...
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    1) https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/aboriginal-life-expectancy https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/ab... 2) gone for now, still talking, still reflecting a roughly mainstream sentiment of bigotry which largely defines Australia. 3) Yeah, same with us and Guantanamo... get back to me when it’s actually closed and the lots of the detainees improve.

ianai 9y ago

This is awful in that sense. But maybe it paves a way for viable market entry for otherwise professionally staffed organizations? Ie a knowledge base they don’t have to pay a license to access. But that’s me groping for an upside. This speaks more than anything I could come up with what’s wrong with the current industry.

fjsolwmv 9y ago

Perhaps you should show some gratitude to the Americans who paid for the invention of all the drugs you enjoy. And maybe work on your country's persecution of homosexuals and aboriginals before you get on your high horse and point it at America.

tentaTherapist 9y ago
Can you and GP please avoid turning this into a battle to see which is the worse country?
- throwingerman 9y ago
  It's sad that the GP's post is showing support for Americans by pointing out that they should all have health care, and someone is triggered into believing it was an attack.
- hvindin 9y ago
  Probably should have thought about it a bit more before I put my first point first. The major problem I have is with the implication that you can make your own drugs at home and it's safe, secondarily it's pretty concerning that there's actually a reader base for this information due to the countries healthcare system.
mangamadaiyan 9y ago
All of the drugs? Drug discovery isn't solely owned by a single country, I would think. There is truth in the GP's comment. The fact that the country in which the GP resides has its own troubles should not preclude them from talking about that of yours. Edit: s/parent/GP/g
pls2halp 9y ago
> gratitude to the Americans who paid for the invention of all the drugs you enjoy Pharmaceutical companies are paid just as much per unit in Australia. It's just funded by the taxpayer, under the assumption that healthy people will eventually pay tax. > your country's persecution of homosexuals and aboriginals I dunno, we've only had one major race riot this century(six total on Wikipedia)[1], whereas the Wikipedia article for 'Mass racial violence in the United States' has eight in the same time period, and quite a few occurrences of 'This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.'[2] In terms of government action, we had a government apology(from the PM too, not just a motion passed) to the aboriginals before you had one to slaves(again, it wasn't done by a president). We haven't needed to apologise to slaves since they were either repatriated or properly integrated into society(again, one race riot this century). In terms of homosexuality, Australia has possibly 88 murders of this nature[3], and no Wikipedia article dedicated to it[4], with approximately 150 instances since 1969(including a few mass shootings, which are a uniquely American problem). There has been some recent anti-gay propaganda, but that's due to a public vote on gay marriage, which is the sort of thing that would inflame divisions. Somehow, the argument has been on the suitability of homosexuals to raise children, and the risk of religious freedoms being restricted by poorly written legislation. We haven't had any signs saying "god hates fags" though. I think Australia's doing pretty well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_violence_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_violence_in_Australia [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_Un... [3]https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/australia/australia-gay-men-killed-suicides-sydney.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/australia/australia... [4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LGBT_people_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LG...

QAPereo 9y ago

What’s the average life expectancy of an aboriginal Australian? How’s Tony Abbot doing, and how’s the weather in a detention camp in Papua New Guinea this time of year?

pls2halp 9y ago
1) 67.2 years for males, and 72.9 years for females[1], as opposed to 73.7 years for American Indians and Alaska Natives[2]. 2) He's gone, and resigned to having fun on talkback radio. 3) Cloudy today, but it's being shut down[3]. [1]http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter218Oct+2010 http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter... [2]https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/ https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/ [3]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-26/refugees-told-to-leave-manus-island-detention-centre/8745172 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-26/refugees-told-to-leave...
- QAPereo 9y ago
  1) https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/aboriginal-life-expectancy https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/ab... 2) gone for now, still talking, still reflecting a roughly mainstream sentiment of bigotry which largely defines Australia. 3) Yeah, same with us and Guantanamo... get back to me when it’s actually closed and the lots of the detainees improve.