[ExI] Medical power of attorney for cryonicsts

[John Clark]

Anders Sandberg:

> Medical ethics at its simplest typically runs the issue past the
> Beauchamp principles. Does the treatment respect the autonomy of the
> patient? (this is where informed consent comes in, as well as the right to
> withdraw for any reason)
>

That one is pretty uncontroversial and pretty obvious; I don't have a PhD
in ethics but nevertheless I figured that one out all by myself.

> Does the treatment in expectation help the patient more than it causes
> risk?
>

That is a scientific question not a moral one.

> Does the treatment have some risks of harm that are unacceptable?
>

All treatments have risk and specifying how much risk is in the scientific
domain. And there is no one objective number that divides acceptable risk
from the unacceptable, it is entirely the patient's decision not mine
because it's his life not mine.

 > Can they be reduced?
>

Obviously if risks can be reduced they should be. But do we really need to
ask somebody with a PhD in ethics to get answers to these sort of
questions? Are they really that hard?

> Does the treatment cause injustice? (This is why I think reporting is
> important: it spreads the benefit of the experiment even if it doesn't work
> out. And this is also why super-expensive treatments might be problematic. )
>

This is where my opinion on morality differs from the opinion of medical
ethicists.  Apparently Mr. Beauchamp feels that if you can't cure everybody
you shouldn't cure anybody, I disagree. And if a super expensive cure for
cancer were found, something that really cured it and didn't just extend
the patient's painful dying process by a few weeks, then economic and
social forces would soon drive the price of the cure way way down.

  John K Clark
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20141206/91e4bcd1/attachment.html>