Military wants to secretly test product on civilians

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/REPOSITORY/612170331/1002/NEWS02

A
blood substitute made by a Massachusetts company that the military wants to test on civilian trauma victims is urgently needed to save lives on the battlefield in places like Iraq, a Navy official told federal advisers last week.

The Navy wants to test the product, derived from cow blood, on about 1,100 trauma victims in emergency situations. It proposes doing so without obtaining the customary informed consent of patients in advance.

The substitute blood, called Hemopure, would be given on the way to the hospital to patients ages 18 to 69 who have lost dangerous amounts of blood. It would substitute for the saline fluids typically given in ambulances when donated blood is unavailable for transfusion.

In Iraq, 68 percent of the U.S. troops who die of trauma before reaching a hospital suffer severe bleeding as part of their injuries, the Navy's deputy surgeon general, Rear Adm. John Mateczun, told a panel of federal health advisers. An available blood substitute could save many of those lives, he added.

"We urgently need an oxygen-carrying capability that does not require refrigeration, is universally compatible and can be readily administered in a field setting," Mateczun said in remarks to a Food and Drug Administration panel, which convened to consider whether the agency should lift a hold on the experiment. The FDA isn't required to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees but usually does.

[Drum]

1. Start in the White House. They're civilians, right? nt

[jamesinca]

2. great, back to syphilis and nuclear weapons

[ThomCat]

3. NO way in hell!

Nobody should be exposed to any side effects or risks associated with any product testing without informed consent.

If the military is determined to test this on people, let them find the volunteers to test it on.
x(

[BadgerKid]

4. Recall the anthrax inoculations?

Military personnel and, I believe, first-response health care workers weren't allowed to object either.

[KoKo]

5. Gotta do something with all those Mad Cow's blood. It helps "the ranchers"

The ranchers are El Chimpo's friends.

[treestar]

6. If they know they are doing it and agree

Fine. But only then. I'm sure many freepers will sign up. I wouldn't mind signing up really, since it doesn't mean you support the war and could have other uses.

[Ilsa]

7. Could anyone protest on the religious grounds? They don't want

to have animal products injected into them? What if they are vegans for spiritual reasons?

[hack89]

8. If the only other choice was death..

as determined by the ER doctors, I say why not?

[Heidi]

9. Locking.

Duplicate: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2653742&mesg_id=2653742