First, a note on "equally mediocre" health care:
"It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, white or black, insured or uninsured," said chief author Dr. Steven Asch, at the Rand Health research institute, in Santa Monica, Calif. "We all get equally mediocre care."
Just one question: why is it more important to have equal treatment for all instead of better but unequal health care for all, especially when equal treatment means worse healthcare for some?
Second, from johngaltline, comes an article on the danger of being a subject in a drug trial:
Six healthy men who signed on to swallow a single dose of an experimental medicine designed to stimulate the immune system are in an intensive care unit at a London hospital after suffering a life-threatening reaction to the drug.
...The medicine was in the earliest stages of human testing and the six volunteers were the first to ingest it. Animal studies by the drug's developer, TeGenero AG in Germany, had shown it had a positive effect on the immune system. The clinical trials were initiated to test the promise of a novel treatment for leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
...Myfanwy Marshal, a girlfriend of one of the volunteers, told the BBC the volunteers were bloated "beyond recognition.They just all went down like flies, all six of them."
...Marshall told the BBC her boyfriend, age 28, had decided to participate for the cash - about $3,500 - to pay bills.
"John Galt" has thoughts on some ramifications of the drug trial at his site (linked to above).