The Renegade of Junk
"Little by little, however, Kalantri began to see the problematic side of outsourced trials. "When I try to explain that a drug is experimental, that it might not work, the understanding is not there," he observes. "One woman said to me, 'What do you mean, the drug might not work? All drugs work!'"
This is actually a result of not having had Clinical Trials and original research in medicine in India, as well as the inculcation of a scientistic attitude of "Doctor/Teacher/Expert knows best" combined with the traditional bowing before authority figures. I think this attitude is what needs to be addressed, and I doubt that the suggested regulation will make even a dent in it.
Since these poor, illiterate people cannot make judgement based on hard facts should we also take away their voting rights?
What's the guarantee that they will vote the right people to the parliament? Unlike the case of medical trials where they can only harm themselves, allowing them to vote can pose risk to others too!
Essentially, we will have to treat them as children till they get enough knowledge to make their own decisions. Right?
Is that you are implying?
It is one thing to have regulations to prevent fraud and quite another to have regulations to protect people from themselves! I hope you see the difference and understand its full implications!
Gautam: Until such an attitude shift takes place in India, and until we have clinical trials and original medicinal research taking place in India (and I take your word that it isn't already taking place), should we allow drug companies and medical researchers to decieve poor patients and use them as guinea pigs?
That the patients being tested upon are poor and uneducated is only one side of the problem; the other side is that those doing these trials are being unethical in not informing the patients of the risk. For both reasons we need regulation.
Ashish: The poorest of Indians cherish their vote and frequently vote parties and politicians out of power. To the best of their ability, they judge who is right for them. Your analogy with democracy does not hold. Regulation of clincal trial can help save someone's life: for that alone it is worth it.
Africa has a similar situation. So frustrating! Agree with you about more regulation in these areas. These are the times when I wish our government was more on top of things and was acting in the interest of the people. Kalam and Singh have the right intentions, but are surrounded by goons.
A similar incident happened to me when i had to take a X-ray for immigration. In the past one year, i had to visit almost 2 other countries and had to undergo x-ray for two times. Then one before coming to US and now again another one. In India, when i mentioned this to my present employer, that why don't we use the first one instead of repeatedly taking x-rays again and again, they just mentioned that each and every x-ray taken will be exclusive property of that particular situation and cannot be transferred. I feel this is absurd. Atleast can't they make a simple effort to know if this is possible.
What i am coming to is that; In India, even if the patients are educated, there is not enough avenues for that individual to have proper access to information regarding the usage of drugs, Medico-legal issues etc. Whoever you approach will just try to shrug away the responsibility to someone else and eventually, the guinea pigs (ordinary citizens) frustrated and confused will just accept the prescription and forget it until the after effects can be noticed probably after decades which by then is too late for their health as well as taking action on the perpetrators of the crime.
http://www.irishhealth.com/index...level=4&
id=5049
Commenting by HaloScan
