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A comment on Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently. Parent comment

Re:Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently by DanielBMarkham on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @04:56AM (#13425239)
I hate making moral arguments, but dang. I'm not sure it's entirely utilitarian.

People like to feel there is meaning to their life, some sort of story. Given a chance to directly contribute to science in an understandable way in their last days? I think for many it is the most humane thing to do. (But not all, of course) [1] Note that the key here is understandable, which would eliminate double-blind studies.

1. Related -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning

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Re:Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently by notahacker on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @05:37AM (#13425395)
Quite apart from the ethical concerns, I can't really imagine a shared characteristic in a set of test subjects for an experimental procedure/treatment that could undermine the results more than expected to die soon for unrelated reason
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Re:Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently by DanielBMarkham on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @06:33AM (#13425629)
That's a sample size and actuarial question.
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Re:Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently by mcherm on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @07:33AM (#13425870)
No. Confounding variables are NOT fixed by using larger sample sizes.
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Re:Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently by Fomite on Thursday January 19, 2017 @02:42AM (#13433886)
As a trained epidemiologist, I regret that I have but one upvote to give.
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Re:Why Medical Advice Seems to Change So Frequently by notahacker on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @07:38AM (#13425905)
Even if an abundance of patients with sufficiently similar terminal illnesses at sufficiently similar stages willing to forego their entitlement to other treatment or pain relief in the interests of medical science exists, I can't see "although several patients died during the trial the increase in death rate wasn't statistically significant and whilst possible side effects such as nausea and extreme fatigue were reported, these were also near-universal in the control group" as an advance in testing procedures...
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