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World's Largest Medical Experiment

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the half-a-million-volunteers dept.

eldavojohn writes "Recently in the UK, a Biobank project has been rolled out to 'unpick' the genetic basis of diseases such as cancer on half a million volunteers. This is based on the success of a three-month pilot phase conducted on 3,800 participants. From the article: 'Over the next four years, blood and urine samples will be collected from volunteers aged 40 to 69, to help scientists unravel the genetic foundations of common diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia and joint problems. If you live in the UK, agreeing to this survey may involve a little more than you would expect."

1 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Dog / bark / tree / wrong by ashley_moran · · Score: 1, Troll

    The longer we spend trying to find what is wrong with US, as opposed to what is wrong with the crap we eat, drink and breathe is the biggest killer of all. Somehow though, doctors are oblivious to the fact that the only animals that get cancer, heart disease, diabetes etc are us, and our domesticated pets (and livestock, etc). And so they don't find it unusual that the most sucessful primate in the world has more built-in flaws than a pre-alpha build of Windows. Hang on a second!!! Doesn't evolution select the MOST fit?

    And it's worth bearing in mind that iatrogenic deaths (from misdiagnosis, drug side effects, etc) rival those of heart disease and cancer anyway. So even assuming that current lifestyle advice from doctors is NOT the cause of the health crisis we are in, what do we do? If this research highlights the genetic "faults" inherent in all of us, the pharmaceuticals will be in a race to create drugs or gene therapy to mask these alleged flaws. Again - hang on a second!!! If you get rats in your house, do you release rattlesnakes to eat them?

    I once heard that increased cancer screening could actually increase deaths due to unnecessary surgery, or other treatments, on benign tumours. I used to think that was crazy. But just consider what could happen if you can walk into a doctor's surgery, put drop of blood on a probe and be told that you should consider a preventative [insert favourite body part here]-ectomy to remove the ticking timebomb inside you.