4 ms·
Just because a treatment doesn’t work doesn’t make it snake oil. Snake oil implies intent to deceive. Untested drugs can be based on a strong theoretical founda
by valine 3y ago
Just because a treatment doesn’t work doesn’t make it snake oil. Snake oil implies intent to deceive. Untested drugs can be based on a strong theoretical foundation and still not work. I expect the majority of experimental treatments won’t work. We should be trying regardless, not just for the sake of the people taking the treatment, but for the countless people in the future who can benefit from the same treatment when it does works.
Also we should stop patronizing everyone. If someone understands the risk and their doctor agrees, just treat them.
- jfk13 3y agoAnd how do we assess whether "someone understands the risk"? Often, I suspect nobody really "understands" the risk of some minimally-tested, experimental treatment.
- MostlyStable 3y agoThis is a fully generalized argument against personal autonomy.
- jfk13 3y agoYes, I suppose it could be taken that way. I wasn't intending to argue one way or the other, merely to point out that such an apparently simple condition ("if someone understands...") actually encompasses a huge amount of uncertainty, and so doesn't necessarily represent the "easy answer" that it might at first appear.
- RandomLensman 3y agoWhich why in a lot of instances in our lives we are not allowed full personal autonomy. We try to minimize collateral damage as well as self-damage to some extent.