this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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Be careful what you ask for and how any laws are written. I knew a guy who became a paraplegic after a helicopter accident. He actually walked away from the accident but months/years later damage to his lower spine caused a blood clot that rendered him largely unable to use his legs.
He was wheelchair-bound when I met him, but one day a few years down the line I walked into a room to find him standing & walking. He told me he had even been able to climb a ladder to replace a light bulb. He’d been on a medical trial that was clearly promising. Unfortunately side effects piled up, he had to stop the trial, and he again ended up in a wheelchair.
Granted this wasn’t the same as a medical implant trial, but if strict laws are enacted that required companies to support medical devices, drugs, etc. then I’d be very afraid of the impact it would have on research and trials like these. No company is going to want to risk lawsuits, etc. so they’ll just stop innovating, or at least cut back a huge amount.
I work as a disability support worker, I have clients in wheelchairs and traveled the world with them doing sport. I am fully aware of what cutting edge tech can do to better lives, and I am even more aware of what the effects of not having access are.
That said, your argument is nonsense. These companies have more money than they know what to do with, and the trials of these products in humans are intentionally small. They have an obligation to do no harm, and that includes supporting their patients til the end of life.
If that requires slower trials, or special insurance the company pays to cover these things, or careful standardization so the torch can be passed on should the company go under, so be it.
The people who got the ocular implants are going blind again one by one because the company that gave them vision went under. They cannot get support or parts.
Can you imagine having your sight and therefore independence again, only to have the cold fear every night that you'll wake up and your implant won't be working?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete
Ah money... is screws you one way or the other.