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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

I would be surprised if people weren't already testing this, e.g. in China where there is less regulation.

I think that could be a trend: US/European researcher publishes hypothesis, and Asian researcher secretly tests it on humans, and if it works, publishes it and/or becomes first to market.

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What do you think the solution would be, should this take off? Wrapping early stage trials in a veil of secrecy?

I'd say we should encourage this, but just make sure our intellectual property agreements are strong enough so that both parties benefit from their contribution.

In my view, we need to be moving much faster on developing technologies, drugs, and therapies. If some societies are able to help out, we should be grateful and welcome that - so long as the subjects all consent.

So basically you would applaud weaker ethical rules in China?

There is no doubt that China has weaker ethical rules compared to the West, but I think in this case, as long as the person consents, what's the problem?

Do you necessarily think that it's more ethical to have laws or rules that forbids suicides or self-harm regardless of what a person wants?

Making a choice to protect people trying new treatments keeps those people safer but the trade-off is that you develop new treatments slower, which means more people suffer and die waiting for treatments.

Developing quickly versus safely are different decisions, but I don't think one is purely stronger or weaker than the other.

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