[slacka]

How is this the trolley problem for someone with a terminal disease? I assume the sick population are the people in the trolley and the experimental patient is the person on the track? In this scenario, by not pulling the lever you just extend the life of the people on the trolley to the end of the ride for a dangerous drug. Where as, pulling the level could save the life of the person on the track and the people in the trolley if the drug is successful.

What am I missing? For non-terminal diseases, it's a bit murkier, but still I don't follow the analogy.

[cameronh90]

Some people do go into remission from a terminal cancer diagnosis, either because the diagnosis was wrong or because they live long enough for an approved treatment to come on the market. Also, that you have terminal cancer doesn’t say anything about how long you’re going to live. You can live for many years with terminal cancer.

I do think we’re overly cautious with drug approvals and I think we should be more open to leaving the decision to patients and their medical teams, but it’s not as simple as saying someone’s terminally ill, so just do whatever. Reducing it down to the trolley problem makes it seem much more black and white and immediate than it really is.