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Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

irishtimes.com

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Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#381

Post by pasabagi »

goodguyamericun wrote: post #186

I just want to say huge respect for Dr Mohammad who despite his faith decided to do what is right. It might not be well known but most muslims are raised with strong beliefs, even in educated countries (eg 85% in Pakistan support sharia). God bless Dr mohammad

> sharia

Can anybody offer some insight into what people mean by that? I know that in the 19th century, sharia was basically just a legal tradition, that drew on Islam (just as western legal traditions draw on Christianity, or eastern ones Confucianism). Is it more extreme these days?

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#382

Post by DrAwdeOccarim »

ryandrake wrote: post #358
DrAwdeOccarim wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t sense hostility outside the typical vocal minority. Having straddled the FDA-regulated world and the libertarian-leaning internet cultures through the aughts and teens, my experience is that the internet libertarians are simply ignorant of how the FDA actually serves us. Pretty typically libertarian—freedom as long as nothing gets more dangerous. Kind of like rebellious children.

> Pretty typically libertarian—freedom as long as nothing gets more dangerous. Kind of like rebellious children. Or, as this guy[1] put it, like house cats. “convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand.” As a former Libertarian who luckily grew out of that phase, I love this analogy. 1: https://twitter.com/jspauldingphoto/status/14615069981183303...

Yea, that’s a good one!

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#383

Post by robbedpeter »

DrAwdeOccarim wrote: post #319
neuronic wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hostility towards FDA on HN is incredible. I wouldn't trust some VC funded startup bros with anything related to medicine at all without having passed every single regulatory board tangentially related to whatever they are doing, even more so after Theranos.

I don’t sense hostility outside the typical vocal minority. Having straddled the FDA-regulated world and the libertarian-leaning internet cultures through the aughts and teens, my experience is that the internet libertarians are simply ignorant of how the FDA actually serves us. Pretty typically libertarian—freedom as long as nothing gets more dangerous. Kind of like rebellious children.

The fda is responsible for keeping hearing aids at insane prices my entire life. They serve as the gatekeepers for a cartel of once manufacturers, now IP holders (pure rent seekers,) who have successfully used the US government to exploit one of the most overlooked and vulnerable classes of people. Almost everyone loses hearing when they're older.

When you live with hearing loss, it leads to social isolation and embarrassing situations, depression, and all the usual attendant disasters in people's lives.

The hearing cartel has used their wealth to create a pseudomedicine so as to brand their salespeople as doctors, and infested almost every state with bureacrats who determine policy and direct licensing and enforcement.

Hearing aids that are priced at $5000 or more are produced at scale for less than $5 per unit. It'd be trivial to turn most modern headphones into hearing aid equivalent technology, but there is a regulatory moat surrounding real time audio enhancement that will cause the fda to shut down any attempt to augment regular hearing, let alone allow the hearing impaired the ability to operate what amounts to a stereo equalizer.

The fda does engage in legitimate business, but that's insufficient to justify the costs paid by people who get screwed when the FDA is exploited for profit.

I currently pay for "hearing aids as a service" and lose $200 a month for the privilege of hearing. I pay what amounts to extortion money for my disability. Because my loss is classified profound, none of the Obama era loosening of hearing aid restrictions help. It's lip service that acknowledges the problem but leaves 95% of it unsolved.

Libertarian shmibertarian, I think I'm entitled to not get specially fucked because my ears don't work. I think it's sick that I feel grateful that I can afford hearing as a service when it should be something covered by insurance, or something I can buy for the same cost as premium earbuds.

Government shouldn't be involved in hearing aids, except in the consumer protection arena. The fda has no business enabling the exploitation of disabled and vulnerable people, but hearing aids are just one area they happily strong-arm the public on behalf of cartels and industry lobbies.

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#384

Post by Loughla »

drran wrote: post #335
bobsmooth wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations are written in blood, then the blood darkens and people forget why we have regulations.

Regulations should be transparent, with link to original cases and deduction process documented. We are not telepaths.

You can look up any and all regulations online. Then you can read the transcripts of public comments regarding the regulations. You can find relevant court cases online. What else do you need?

Nobody does that now, for the most part, why would they do it if there were a hyperlink attached to the regulations themselves? Who actually reads the text of regulations in the general population? I have zero data, but I'm willing to bet it's virtually no one. Specialists with a vested interest sure do, and they will probably already know relevant cases or thought processes.

Edit: This was written in a very US-centric way, because it is in response to something originally about the FDA.

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#385

Post by skocznymroczny »

decremental wrote: post #161
yboris wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side-comment that doesn't apply in this case, but worth mentioning: "regardless of who they are" seems like a shitty blanket principle to have. For example, hospitals are overstuffed with COVID patients means regular patients die as a result. In many cases, "The overwhelming majority of the patients had COVID-19, and 98% of those needing acute critical care were unvaccinated." This means people who choose to not take…

Why are so many vocal advocates for the covid vaccine such demons? Is the rhetoric surrounding the covid vaccine so toxic that it turns otherwise normal people into people who are so hate filled, or are such hate filled people simply predisposed to being influenced by such rhetoric?

The vaccine narrative is collapsing, and people are desperate for answers and to find someone responsible. They were promised high immunity from infection and close to 100% immunity from hospitalization/death. Real-world stats paint a completely different picture and people are desperate.

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#386

Post by jrh206 »

eixiepia wrote: post #211
hiptobecubic wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get what is so difficult for people to digest in discussions like these. Someone says something like "I try to do the best I can to minimize the unethical treatment of others," and it's a tidal wave of angry finger pointing and fallacious appeals to nature.

> "I try to do the best I can to minimize the unethical treatment of others," and it's a tidal wave of angry finger pointing and fallacious appeals to nature. Maybe because the vegans people have met, are the obnoxious ones that want to push their eating disorder on everyone else, so they just point out the hypocrisy when appropriate.

I've met plenty of reasonable vegans. I wouldn't consider them to have an eating disorder. I eat meat.

When I've engaged with discussion about this with them (usually because I asked), I've found their arguments personal and convincing.

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#387

Post by EugeneOZ »

inglor_cz wrote: post #346
goodguyamericun wrote: post #186

I just want to say huge respect for Dr Mohammad who despite his faith decided to do what is right. It might not be well known but most muslims are raised with strong beliefs, even in educated countries (eg 85% in Pakistan support sharia). God bless Dr mohammad

The recipient is a non-Muslim, so no Sharia-related problems in his case. AFAIK it is not forbidden for a Muslim to touch pigs, only to eat them. Pigs and dogs are impure, but you can perform ablution afterwards. Muslims normally own hunting and guarding dogs. That would actually be a common problem for Coalition soldiers in Iraq when they tried to enter a village by stealth - lots of barking. "This impureness nevert…

I understand why pigs are “impure” (parasites in the meat), but why dogs?

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#388

Post by baldfat »

jostmey wrote: post #8
phnofive wrote: post #2

Discussed here fifteen days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29882912 Not a huge update but an interesting discussion of FDA approval; can the FDA actually stop or sanction experimental procedures like this?

Yes, the FDA will insert itself to regulate medicine wherever it can. For example, the FDA has been pushing to regulate diagnostic tests as medical devices. It’s funny how Americans surrender medical autonomy to the government but draw a strict line in the sand in other issues

I have a weird muscle disease that is treated with just taking over the counter L-Carnitine. The issue, vitamins and supplements are not regulated. So, I will try to take a new brand and after a few days my symptoms will come back because the pills don't have the L-Carnitine like it says and there is no one to make sure it does. It will cost me four to seven days of pain, and no one is held responsible.

My best guess is one in a thousand actually needs them so the 999 have a placebo effect and the 1 suffers. I told my neurologist, and he couldn't even prescribe them for me because that isn't a thing. So now I buy all I can find that works and hope they don't stop making it.

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#389

Post by dnautics »

neuronic wrote: post #313
pjc50 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> regulate diagnostic tests If only there hadn't been a major high profile collapse of a fraudulent diagnostic test company recently.

The hostility towards FDA on HN is incredible. I wouldn't trust some VC funded startup bros with anything related to medicine at all without having passed every single regulatory board tangentially related to whatever they are doing, even more so after Theranos.

There are a wide range of options between startup bros and government. For example, in the US, a lot of electrical component standards and testing are managed by the UL, which is a nonprofit ngo.

Maybe something like "a UL for drug approval" might be worth a go.

Re: Two weeks later David Bennett is alive, his pig’s heart beating soundly

#390

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

baldfat wrote: post #388
jostmey wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the FDA will insert itself to regulate medicine wherever it can. For example, the FDA has been pushing to regulate diagnostic tests as medical devices. It’s funny how Americans surrender medical autonomy to the government but draw a strict line in the sand in other issues

I have a weird muscle disease that is treated with just taking over the counter L-Carnitine. The issue, vitamins and supplements are not regulated. So, I will try to take a new brand and after a few days my symptoms will come back because the pills don't have the L-Carnitine like it says and there is no one to make sure it does. It will cost me four to seven days of pain, and no one is held responsible. My best guess…

Do you have any proof the supplements don’t have l-carnitine? You should get a lawyer if so, that is an easy case against the supplement maker imo.
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