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Biotech / Medical : Techniclone (TCLN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Manfred A. Wallner who wrote (2782)	12/8/1998 4:08:00 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 3702

latimes.com:/HOME/NEWS/METRO/t000112090.1.html There's the link to the article in the Los Angeles Times about John Hiserodt, a cancer specialist, who sent an unapproved product to Miami Children's Hospital in 1996 to treat a girl's brain tumour, age unstated. Her father was fully supportive of the attempt to save her life and after she died, wrote complaining about the attacks by the FDA on Mr Hiserodt. Well worth reading. One could make arguments in this instance in that the girl was unable to speak for herself because of her age, ignorance and disease so it becomes a question of who should have control over her treatment. Not an easy one. But the FDA wasn't interested in what was best for the girl. They were concerned about their own systems and approvals power. I suppose they would argue that something which is unapproved is using dying people as experimental material with no reasonable hope of benefit. I'd say it is up to the person involved and their advisers. If they want to clutch at a straw, that is their choice. Though I wouldn't be too keen to give a father blanket approval to try anything he likes on his dying daughter. The mother wasn't mentioned; I imagine she wasn't in much of a state to function well. To me, the girl should have first say, then the mother, then the father, then their chosen advisor/s, then the FDA, then the politicians in Washington. If the girl can't say, then the mother should rule the roost. If she wishes to consult the father, that's her business. The pecking order is back to front. If the child was a ward of the state, then fair enough that FDA rules apply. Copyright by LA Times not fully respected in this instance by me! Please register, no charge, at the url above and read the article. But here for posterity a synopsis, I hope they understand: Tuesday, December 8, 1998 FDA Probe Targets Former UCI Doctor By PHIL WILLON, Times Staff Writer -------------------------------------------------------- [Slightly edited and not the complete article].....The father wrote a letter to a UC Irvine Medical Center director calling questions about Hiserodt's actions "offensive and reprehensible." He said that he had begged Hiserodt to intervene, and that the experimental treatment Hiserodt shipped to Miami actually shrank his daughter's tumor. But not enough. She died a few days later. The father wrote: "Is it possible that your institution has devolved to the point where it has completely lost sight that its reason for existence is to help people?" in his Dec. 13, 1996, letter to Dr. Yutaka Kikkawa, Hiserodt's supervisor at the medical center. The letter was obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act. Dr. Frank Meyskens, director of UC Irvine's Choa Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, said Monday that Hiserodt was in a difficult situation--one cancer researchers must face on occasion--but said it doesn't excuse the use of an unapproved drug on a patient. Meyskens said he doubts the inquiries will threaten Irvine's federal funding for cancer research, which tops $35 million a year. ------------------------------------------------------------ Well, at least they'll keep getting the taxpayers' money and the FDA will stay in business. A shame about the daughter, the father, the mother, presumably others associated with the family, the doctor who tried to help. The judicial and legal industry will make a lot of money too. Meanwhile, the girl is two years dead! A mere footnote in the annals of the FDA, the medical cartel, the political monopoly of big government, the legal cartel. They all have their pound of involuntary flesh. What price the Hippocrytic Oath? What price the constitution and "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" What price human rights and self-determination in the "land of the free and brave"? Maurice [Thanks Manfred, for providing that]