Potentially high-impact policy: paying people to participate in dangerous human trials My impression is that a lot of important research in medicine, nutrition, and psychology is held up due to the fact that human trials would be considered unethical. (Please correct me if Im wrong. I may very well be.) In medicine a lot of animal studies are done instead, which has two negative effects. First, animal models often dont translate very well to humans. Second, a lot of unwitting animals are tortured in the process. In psychology, were often forced to make huge inferences from studies involving like ten grad students playing a contrived game. Coercing prisoners, Jews, etc. into human trials might be a net positive in the most brutal utilitarian sense, but it sounds like a really bad idea and I wholeheartedly condemn this and please dont take this quote out of context ever. Instead, what if we made it legal to pay people to participate in dangerous trials (of course informing them of all risks)? It would allow us to make potentially huge scientific advances while sidestepping some of the nastiest ethical issues. (Arguably the trial subjects would also be made better off, if they did it willingly. Some people seem to place less subjective weight on their lives.) This seems like a policy proposal that seems to strike the right balance for EAs: its not so mainstream as to be saturated, but its not so out-there that it could never ever happen. Maybe we could get libertarians on board.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 19:36:14 +0000
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