[ExI] Human Testing

[Stefano Vaj]

On 3 March 2012 05:18, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> We have constructed a monstrosity of a procedure to get a new medication
> approved.

Interestingly, this has much to do with the existing taboo about
research programmes and experiments involving humans, which
immediately evoke in the collective perception Frankenstein,
horror-movie mad scientists, concentration camps, etc.

This goes much beyond the concern for the welfare of the people
involved - which is hardly justifiable anyway from, say, a utilitarian
ethical perspective - and derives from the fundamentally
anti-transhumanist stance where all this (in fact, until the XVIII
century even corpse dissections...) is blasphemy, and a breach of a
"do not touch what is in the image of God" command.

So, while the prohibition have been relaxed with time, the regulatory
system is still based on the idea that it is morally much better to
let 1000 people be killed by the "hand of god" than to risk to harm
one with your own.

-- 
Stefano Vaj