> It's deeply scary and depressing
Yes. You have no idea.
Yes. You have no idea.
[1] https://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-Peristaltic-Pum...
It can also quite easily kill you in your sleep if you mess up the implementation, so ymmv.
Getting devices approved by the FDA is extremely expensive and time consuming. The DIY guys are doing great work, but they have not done this. An actual company such as Medtronic could not do what they have done as they would get shut down by the FDA.
The US is the only industrialized country that does not have the English Rule, which says that if you sue someone in court and lose, you pay their court costs. As a result, trial lawyers make a lot of hay suing medical companies. There's no strong disincentive to see what happens if you go to court. This is another reason medical companies are very conservative when releasing equipment for use.
So, we have capitalists producing technology despite all of these hurdles, and yet somehow you blame them when they take a while to get things into the market?
Patents, and copyright, are only in existence because of government's law. Without such, you could still live in a perfectly capable society (with capitalism as its political system, but not necessarily).
The capitalists got these devices to market despite the regulatory processes of the FDA, which are expensive and time consuming.
What this story highlights is that the regulatory process has created a situation where only corporations with big pockets can generally play in this space legally. What the DIYers are doing is not legal. It is definitely moral, but not legal.
The fact that no one has done so speaks volumes.
I grew up dirt poor in the Deep South. My wife is diabetic. People need the perspective. If that's flamebait, maybe I'm not the one who's in the wrong.
Also it seems like you're ignoring your own "don't post shallow dismissals" rule.