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Stem Cell Firm May Have Administered Unproven Treatments
ananyo writes "With Texas pouring millions of dollars into developing adult stem-cell treatments, doctors there are already injecting paying customers with unproven preparations, supplied by an ambitious new company. Celltex Therapeutics 'multiplies and banks' stem cells derived from people's abdominal fat and its facility in Sugar Land opened in December 2011 and houses the largest stem-cell bank in the United States. But Nature has uncovered evidence that the company is involved in the clinical use of the cells on US soil, which the FDA has viewed as illegal in other cases."
Because the average patient doesn't have the background to understand what they're getting themselves into. Without laws to the contrary snake oil salesman can claim whatever they want about a treatment or medication. Do you really want to live in the 19th century?
OK, so forget the wider internet. Why doesn't the FDA maintain a website containing the approved and known-safe drugs, the experimental drugs, the known-dangerous drugs, etc. The doctor recommends the treatment, the patient goes to the FDA website (which the doctor is required to tell them about) and gets all the information, now the patient can make an informed decision.
You can make all the arguments you want about young children or patients with mental disabilities, but that doesn't justify depriving normal adults of a decision about their own medical treatment.
... because desperate people will do desperate things.
Sure, things could be a lot better... but it's a big assumption that people will (a) make informed decisions and (b) not get totally taken advantage of.
The second one person out of a hundred has a positive outcome on some test drug, all known dangers are totally ignored and everyone wants it. The corp selling the drug starts to suspect there's a problem, but they are making a lot of money so they wait for more conclusive proof. Two years later, everyone's dead of kidney failure.
People are not rational. Even otherwise quite rational people given desperate choices will take wild gambles and will blindly trust anyone saying they can help.
I worked with a non-practicing MD. He loved to tell stories about his days working with patients, and one of the things that stands out in my mind is when he told us "Informed consent is a joke. I know what's best for my patient, and that's what they're going to choose. It's impossible for me to actually make them understand the pros and cons, so it's all in how I explain the options."
It's true enough. People tend to trust their doctor, and in general don't have the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions.