[ExI] FDA Tells Google-Backed 23andMe to Halt DNA Test Service

[Adrian Tymes]

On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Rafal Smigrodzki <
rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:

> ### It never needs to be demonstrated, since it is not relevant. Your
> basic assumption is wrong: In fact, consumers don't have to
> independently verify what's accurate.
>

1) It's not my basic assumption.  I am trying to explain the FDA's
position, that you may come up with attacks on it that are actually
accurate (and therefore potentially effective: venting your anger on straw
men accomplishes nothing, and I - like most on this list - might benefit if
we came up with reforms for the FDA that could actually solve the
problem).  To accuse me of sharing their beliefs just because I am
explaining them is a logical fallacy, and rather insulting.

2) Some verification must be done, whether by consumers, the FDA, or
whoever else.  When the FDA was founded, consumers were demonstrably
unable, and there were no other reliable sources.  That is not necessarily
true today.  Please do not confuse 2013 with the 19th century again.


> The FDA is neither capable nor willing to perform the cost-benefit
> analyses that are the key to efficient regulation of anything, and
> this is why the FDA imposes hundred billion dollar costs on us for
> trivial benefits.


Technically correct, but they believe they can tell what sufficient
cost-benefit analyses are.  They require that the various practitioners
then perform said cost-benefit analyses to their satisfaction.

They specifically believe that 23andMe has not done this.


> However, there are some forms of markets that are
> capable of performing these cost-benefit analyses, including
> insurance, accreditation organizations, consumer groups, professional
> associations and others.
>

And these have indeed performed many of the analyses that the FDA requires.


> There are more efficient ways to assess quality of medical care than a
> government bureaucracy. Therefore the FDA should not exist.


Incorrect.  Part of the FDA's mission is to make sure that those
assessments have in fact been done, even if it itself does not directly do
them.


> > It is if you use your resources in a way that is destructive to other
> > people, such as by crippling yourself then demanding the rest of us make
> > accommodations to let you continue living normally.  Most people who do
> > this, do the self-crippling part involuntarily (such as by acting on bad
> > information).
>
> ### Are you asking if I am a leech?
>
> I am not a leech.
>

You do not intend to be a leech.  Very few of those who wind up in this
position intend to be leeches.

Also, you are not yet a cripple.  You are not yet in the position where
living a decent life requires that you become a leech.

The point there is to prevent people - including you - from having to trade
off personal survival vs. not being leeches.  (Because of course personal
survival wins out in most cases.  Near-term survival is a biological
imperative for most people.  Not necessarily long term, so problems arise
when the long term becomes the near term, but that's another story.)
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