I've never understood this fetish with discarded body parts. In the US, after you've used a cadaver or cadaver part for research you're supposed to return it to the family. How absurd! And that's even before the modern fetish with "IP value" and residuals.
These kinds of rules (and many others) make it very difficult for small pharma and other medical startups to get human anatomical specimens for product development. I know this from experience.
I really couldn't care less what is done with my non-functional corpse once I'm gone.
PS: In the US the collagen that gets injected into lips to puff them up all comes from a single cell line harvested from a discarded foreskin sliced off about 20 odd years ago. No residual "rights" there -- Allergan gets to keep all the money.
The family may want to organize a closed casket burial or a cremation ceremony. Is it so absurd that they would want the body for that?
As the article states the emotional grief over losing a limb may be on the same level as losing a spouse for amputees. I wouldn't say it's absurd that someone would want to keep the ashes in that case.
Well, death is a large constant for humans so it's understandable that we're gonna have a lot of feelings about it. And there's this general understanding that at least some human emotions are more important than economic interests.
Addendum: I'm kinda shocked though. Is this a widespread sentiment towards ethics and individual rights in the pharma industry? If so then I'd say that skepticism is pretty justified.
There is of course a cohort in Pharma who tries to game the system, sure, but by and large people seem to be into the whole "saving people" mission and care about IRBs and the like. Not at all like like it is portrayed in the press or movies.
"flagrant disregard" seems a bit much. I never suggested that such rules should be flouted nor that they are. I was specifically saying I don't understand it. Sure I have relatives who won't eat meat on religious grounds and know why they think so but the worship of an inert piece of meat makes zero sense to me. As far as my dead friends and relatives go: the memories, good and bad, are how they live on for me; but the flesh, meh. Dispose of properly on hygienic grounds is all that matters as far as I'm concerned. It's not the person.
It's especially unfair if the person donated their body: if you believe that they have some right to its fate that donation should be their business and not that of the survivors.
Sorry for the Necropost but I just wanted to clarify this.
The original post sounded to me as if you'd prefer if there were no rules that give relatives the right to decide what happens to the bodies of deceased loved ones that haven't expressed a particular last will in that regard. I agree that, when someone has set up a (legal) last will then relatives have no say in that. But I think relatives should still have more decision power over the fate of a relative's dead body than, say, a pharma company.
"this" refers to the opinion that relatives should have no decision power over the fate of another one's body. Maybe I have misinterpreted you though and that was not what you were trying to say.
"skepticism" refers to some of the bad reputation of the pharma industry in the public eye and some people's disdain from donating their bodies or organs out of distrust.
> PS: In the US the collagen that gets injected into lips to puff them up all comes from a single cell line harvested from a discarded foreskin sliced off about 20 odd years ago. No residual "rights" there -- Allergan gets to keep all the money.
It's in Allergan's filings on the FDA web site (warning: they ahve a lot of products). Figure out when it was introduced, start around then and work backwards.
Back when I learned about htis the boy would have been about 14 years old which was even funnier.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 41.9 ms ] threadThese kinds of rules (and many others) make it very difficult for small pharma and other medical startups to get human anatomical specimens for product development. I know this from experience.
I really couldn't care less what is done with my non-functional corpse once I'm gone.
PS: In the US the collagen that gets injected into lips to puff them up all comes from a single cell line harvested from a discarded foreskin sliced off about 20 odd years ago. No residual "rights" there -- Allergan gets to keep all the money.
As the article states the emotional grief over losing a limb may be on the same level as losing a spouse for amputees. I wouldn't say it's absurd that someone would want to keep the ashes in that case.
Addendum: I'm kinda shocked though. Is this a widespread sentiment towards ethics and individual rights in the pharma industry? If so then I'd say that skepticism is pretty justified.
I don’t understand what “this” refers to, or which skepticism.
"Skepticism" is distrust of the pharma industry who sees humanity merely as a source of money to extract.
"flagrant disregard" seems a bit much. I never suggested that such rules should be flouted nor that they are. I was specifically saying I don't understand it. Sure I have relatives who won't eat meat on religious grounds and know why they think so but the worship of an inert piece of meat makes zero sense to me. As far as my dead friends and relatives go: the memories, good and bad, are how they live on for me; but the flesh, meh. Dispose of properly on hygienic grounds is all that matters as far as I'm concerned. It's not the person.
It's especially unfair if the person donated their body: if you believe that they have some right to its fate that donation should be their business and not that of the survivors.
The original post sounded to me as if you'd prefer if there were no rules that give relatives the right to decide what happens to the bodies of deceased loved ones that haven't expressed a particular last will in that regard. I agree that, when someone has set up a (legal) last will then relatives have no say in that. But I think relatives should still have more decision power over the fate of a relative's dead body than, say, a pharma company.
"this" refers to the opinion that relatives should have no decision power over the fate of another one's body. Maybe I have misinterpreted you though and that was not what you were trying to say.
"skepticism" refers to some of the bad reputation of the pharma industry in the public eye and some people's disdain from donating their bodies or organs out of distrust.
Wtf? Is there more info on this?
Back when I learned about htis the boy would have been about 14 years old which was even funnier.
Just from a practical viewpoint, "gimme the parts, you ain't usin' 'em!" is not going to win you a lot of adherents.
This article isn’t about that case; it’s about what is done with amputated limbs of still living persons.
It seems like impersonal limb disposal mentally affects some amputees and it seems like a reasonable concern that could and should be addressed.