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Comment by lynx23 | Hacker News Reader

The chance of a doctor being held accountable for the medical errors they make is lower then you might expect. I could tell you a story about that. Lost my eyesight at the age of 5 because I happened to meet the wrong doctor at the wrong time, and was abused for his personal experimentation needs. No consequences, simply because high ranking people are more protected then you would hope.

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This is very true, and many people don't know this. A tremendous amount of damage is inflicted by medical errors, particularly against low income people and those least able to get justice. It's wrong to reduce people to being just another body to experiment with or make money from. But good luck holding anyone in the system accountable.

A lot of patients don't know who they are dealing with nor their history. And it can be really hard to find out or get a good evaluation. Many people put too much faith in authority figures, who may not have their best interests in mind or who are not the experts they claim or appear to be.

The chance of a machine being held accountable is zero as the concept is inapplicable.

It will have to payout of its blockchain wallet that naturally it will have. /s

Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US at least. Given that data, I am assuming the chances of a human being held accountable for their errors in medicine is also almost zero. It might not be ccompletely zero, but I think the difference is effectively negligible.

> I think the difference is effectively negligible.

The difference is categorical, humans are responsible whether they are held to account or not. An automated system effectively dissipates this responsibility over a system such that it is inherently impossible to hold any human accountable for the error, regardless of desire.

Many have no idea about this. Medical error, is right there behind cancer and heart attacks. But there is way too much shoulder shrugging when it happens. Then on to the next.

Sorry to hear that. The current medical system is a joke and fails people at every stage

The difference is you could find the person responsible. Contrast when the DMV can't be held accountable for fouling up your registration.

And, what difference does it make being able to find the individual responsible, and figuring out that the system is protecting him from liabilities? What I am trying to say here is, there isnt much difference between zero and almost zero.

Don't worry, now there will be an extra layer of indirection.

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