Neurosurgeons barred from human research after experimental infections

Re:Neurosurgeons barred from human research after experiment... by uvdiv on Tuesday July 24, 2012 @04:10AM (#4284784)

I've heard that if you sign a contract under the threat of death that it is not legally binding. Now I know the doctors aren't making the threat, but I think the situation is remarkably similar, right?

No, they're polar opposites. If I hold a gun to your head and demand you do something, I am (i) forcing you to do something that is (ii) against your interests. If you're sick and I offer you an experimental treatment, I am (i) not-forcing you to do something that (ii) is in your interests and benefit. It could maybe save your life. A cancer patient is not legally incapacitated like a child; she has the ability and right to make decisions influencing her own life and death.

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Re:Neurosurgeons barred from human research after experiment... by sekm on Tuesday July 24, 2012 @05:37AM (#4284963)

> she has the ability and right to make decisions influencing her own life and death.

True, but at the end of the day her decision is likely to rest on the advice given to her from an authority. If the doctor isn't following the proposed rules, then it makes the entire thing a fiasco. I guess I should be stressing how important the doctor's role is in the decision process of the patient.

Just a side note, wouldn't the polar opposite of my mentioned case, be where a person tells another person that if they sign a contract then they will kill them?

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