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

irishtimes.com

441–450 of 527 posts

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

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people like you so hyperbolic? How is anything that the OP said demonic? The unvaccinated are literally causing people to die besides themselves. There is nothing hate-filled about that.

> The unvaccinated are literally causing people to die besides themselves. There is nothing hate-filled about that. As a soon to be triple vaccinated healthy adult I wish we could soon admit that we do this for our own good and to not be away from work. By now it is very clear that about the only thing the current vaccine does against Omicron is lessen the consequences for the individuals who take the vaccine. I stil…

Lessening the consequence of a COVID infection results in lesser chance of having to need a hospital bed. Whenever you use a hospital bed during a time of 100% occupancy, you cause one person who needs a bed to not get it, which can and does (on average) result in more harm and death.

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

#442

Is this compassionate use or experimentation on a dying patient for the future benefit of the rest of us? I’m fine with the latter, if consensual. But only if we call it what it is.

From everything I read it was consensual. But that raises a larger moral question. Is it really consent if you're about to die? I think that almost anyone given the choice to either die or get a pig heart will choose the latter, there's a good chance you will die if you get the transplant but there is a 100% chance that you will die if you don't.

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

#443
post #334
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's difficult to do repeat surgeries in the chest.

Just install a window and some valves for easy replacement. Maybe you could even hot swap pig hearts.

Ok Tony Stark

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

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some want vengeance in place of justice.

I think it's more that justice means something different to different people. I think that vengeance can be justice.

Why do you think that?

Lets say a man goes to prison for 25 years for murder, and upon release the victim's husband kills him. The victim's husband gets revenge, but is it just?

Justice shouldn't be subjective, imo.

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

#445
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…

It's a slippery slope.. I think the uneducated are less likely to be vaccinated and it doesn't seem right to refuse service to someone because they believed something that was incorrect. Say there were people with mental handicaps that fell in this camp, it would be even worse. And where do you draw the line for who gets help for stuff unrelated to covid? Having a do no harm type moral code seems like the best way to…

Consider a hypothetical scenario: there is a fire in the woods and the government says "do not go into the woods". People choose to go to the woods and return as burnt victims. Hospitals should help these individuals, but if they fill up 100% of the hospital beds and we need to turn people who got hurt due to accidents who then die, the fault is on those who chose to go into the dangerous woods.

It may be the case that implementing a policy of vacating beds of burn victims is too challenging, but that doesn't undermine the "should" in the "we should vacate beds of voluntarily hurt when accidentally hurt need the beds".

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

#446
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get talk about people "feeling" the person from whom they received the transplant inside them? If so, how would a pig seem?

People talk about a lot of things. God, ghosts, karma. No evidence it isn't anything other than psychological.

> phycological

Let's leave the algae talk out of this!

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

#447

I've said this before here and got downvoted for it, but bioethicists as a profession are responsible for more death than pretty much anything else I can quickly think of. People are dying from heart disease all the time, very often in predictable conditions. Literally millions every year. Statistically this means we should hear about such failed procedures many many more times than we do now - there is literally no…

One word: inequality.

When people don't feel they are equals in society, the whole "for the benefit of all" sounds pretty cynical.

Also, some governments have a poor record for taking responsibility (e.g. looking after veterans), or making others take responsibility (DuPont), so the people who do come off worse don't necessarily expect to be taken care of.

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

#448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The market for counterfeit and unregulated chargers and electronics on Amazon/Alibaba (most all of which are UL marked) and fires related to the above suggests that the UL doesn't really have any teeth. It's possible that medical approvals would be less prone to this sidestepping of independent regulators, since much of the spending is proxied by insurance companies looking to maximize profits and minimize BS spendin…

There's also a wide range of things between the UL and FDA.

Besides, if it's counterfeit, then it's not actually UL marked, so I'm not sure what your argument is.

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

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a collapsed lung from a gunshot wound was contagious you sure would. If having your head split open in a DWI accident was contagious you would. Like 99% of the arguments against vaccination this isn't nearly as pithy as you think. After seeing what going through the initial wave of COVID in a medical provider in the ER did to my mother I could not care less about how many loopholes in efficacy people want to tout.…

> People don't like to risk their lives for people who won't help themselves. That's an entirely reasonable position that I can understand - my advice to those people would be to avoid careers in which they are required to risk their lives for people who won't help themselves. There's a good reason I'm not a police officer, doctor, fireman, etc. The risk/reward payoff in those careers is far, far too low.

What on earth are you blathering about?

Comparing armed police sent in to deal with possibly armed suspects... firefighters who get sent into infernos... with doctors.

The risks doctors normally face from one patient to another are identical, so it was nonsensical to say they were risking their life for a specific patient. Especially since we've known how to protect from _normal_ bloodborne and airborne pathogens for a long time. The difference is COVID had no vaccine and treatment was limited at the time, it was repeatedly a death sentence.

That's why COVID already forced a rethinking of how far we expect providers to go to save someone: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.006...

There's a good reason you're not a doctor, let's leave it at that.

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

#450
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…

That sounds severe enough I'd consider it worthwhile to pay a lab to run spectroscopy on a range of supplements just in case, or consider hiring a lab to synthesize a batch I _know_ will meet my needs. The first option is probably a lot less pricey than you'd expect.
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