RIP Brittany Maynard :(

[Brainonska511]

Next week... Scientists find cure for brain cancer.

Oops.

In reality, it's practically guaranteed that such a situation would never happen. Science rarely happens in leaps and bounds and progress is usually incremental. It would be well documented if someone was about to bring such a cure to market.

I'm glad she could pass on her own terms. If people are terminal, they should have that choice to decide when they want to go, whether that means fighting to the bitter end or choosing to end it earlier. She didn't want to put her family or herself through the really crappy parts that happen towards the end of terminal illnesses.

 

[stlc8tr]

Already taken care of with how the law is written. Under the Oregon law Death With Dignity Act. If a person makes the choice to die the death is not ruled a suicide with how the law is written.

https://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Documents/requirements.pdf

That's interesting. But I thought that most life insurance policies would have to pay in cases of suicide anyway if the policy has been in effect for more than two years?

 

[disappoint]

RIP.

I can't believe all the assholes who would condemn her actions and have her suffer through a slow and painful death rather than going out peacefully when she chose to just like she did.

Their anger stems from fear. Fear of their own mortality.

 

[Fritzo]

In reality, it's practically guaranteed that such a situation would never happen. Science rarely happens in leaps and bounds and progress is usually incremental. It would be well documented if someone was about to bring such a cure to market.

I'm glad she could pass on her own terms. If people are terminal, they should have that choice to decide when they want to go, whether that means fighting to the bitter end or choosing to end it earlier. She didn't want to put her family or herself through the really crappy parts that happen towards the end of terminal illnesses.

Cancer will almost certainly never be totally cured because it's not just one thing. It's not a virus, bacteria, or parasite that causes it. It's a non-specific mutation of cells that start replicating and taking the place of health cells. Not only are their different causes for the same type of cancer, there can be different mutations that cause it to start in the first place.

I think we'll get better at treating cancer, but never be able to cure it.

 

[Jeff7]

Cancer will almost certainly never be totally cured because it's not just one thing. It's not a virus, bacteria, or parasite that causes it. It's a non-specific mutation of cells that start replicating and taking the place of health cells. Not only are their different causes for the same type of cancer, there can be different mutations that cause it to start in the first place.

I think we'll get better at treating cancer, but never be able to cure it.

Who knows where technology will take us in a few hundred years.

We've got a spacecraft en route to Pluto for a flyby. It will be operating on its own for the entire primary mission, as it will do the close flyby in less time than it would take to get a command there, get feedback from the probe, and get a response sent back. Once it completes the primary mission on its own, it will send back many gigabytes of data across billions of miles.
See what someone 200 years ago would have thought of that sort of thing.

Or try to explain the Large Hadron Collider, likely the most complex machine that our species has ever created.
Or the workings of the fusion test reactor at the National Ignition Facility, where the aim is to dump 192 laser beams carrying 500 trillion watts into a tiny container of hydrogen.

 

[Printer Bandit]

The wildcard when it comes to finding cures for diseases

 

[moonbogg]

I was caught off guard by this. I had no idea that assisted suicide was legal anywhere. I thought this was a long way off. Luckily for her, it came in time. I've seen how people die from this. To declare the authority to deny them a choice is perfectly immoral. People who claim our lives aren't ours to take are just religious idiots who need to STFU.

 

[mizzou]

Well...to each their own I guess, but as someone who has been very close to people who choose to either make the ultimate decision or simply make numerous attempts, suicide is an ugly and dirty business. I don't care if it's on a hospital bed and endorsed by many others, I don't like the idea or act of suicide.

 

[Excelsior]

Folks, the particular tumor she had has around a 5% survival rate after 5 years. It is all but a death sentence upon diagnosis. I'm not sure why she turned down radiation though, as it has minimal side effects and could have given her just a bit more time.

Waiting till the cancer killed her would have definitely sucked, and her death was already imminent (likely within a month of when she decided to take her life).

source: work in cancer treatment.

 

[Remobz]

Folks, the particular tumor she had has around a 5% survival rate after 5 years. It is all but a death sentence upon diagnosis. I'm not sure why she turned down radiation though, as it has minimal side effects and could have given her just a bit more time.

Waiting till the cancer killed her would have definitely sucked, and her death was already imminent (likely within a month of when she decided to take her life).

source: work in cancer treatment.

My mother's brain cancer spread like vines so they could not operate without removing most of her brains. They did the chemo but that was some serious suffering there. Still haunts me to this day remembering the horrific images of her suffering until the end

 

[ThinClient]

as it has minimal side effects

Really?

...seriously?

 

[IronWing]

I don't understand people who argue against allowing people to have the freedom to end our lives on their own terms.

The last few months of life are the most lucrative for the medical industry. Short circuiting the process hurts profits.

 

[Remobz]

Who knows where technology will take us in a few hundred years.

We've got a spacecraft en route to Pluto for a flyby. It will be operating on its own for the entire primary mission, as it will do the close flyby in less time than it would take to get a command there, get feedback from the probe, and get a response sent back. Once it completes the primary mission on its own, it will send back many gigabytes of data across billions of miles.
See what someone 200 years ago would have thought of that sort of thing.

Or try to explain the Large Hadron Collider, likely the most complex machine that our species has ever created.
Or the workings of the fusion test reactor at the National Ignition Facility, where the aim is to dump 192 laser beams carrying 500 trillion watts into a tiny container of hydrogen.

Which begs the question, do any of you guys rather be born 200 years from now?

Then again, I fear the state of the world 200 years from now in other ways than medical science.

 

[moonbogg]

The last few months of life are the most lucrative for the medical industry. Short circuiting the process hurts profits.

Absolutely true as HELL! People sell off life insurance policies, sell the house, drain retirement funds, borrow money, you name it, all to get a few extra months of miserable life. Not worth it (unless you're the one getting paid).

 

[tcsenter]

Folks, the particular tumor she had has around a 5% survival rate after 5 years.

And that is only when they can surgically debulk or remove the tumor. Her glioblastoma was (reportedly) inoperable = start shopping for burial plots/caskets.

Which begs the question, do any of you guys rather be born 200 years from now?

It raises the question....

 

[Brovane]

The last few months of life are the most lucrative for the medical industry. Short circuiting the process hurts profits.

It isn't really the Health Care industry that fights against assisted suicide. It is the followers of Christianity that believe to take your own life is a sin. They then feel that is necessary to push their moral code on society because of this belief.

 

[zinfamous]

yeah i definitely made my initial reaction before reading the whole thing. i had just heard about this story already and not read the full thing. but meh, if you are already pretty much on your death bed then take your own life, i don't see that big of a deal about it to be honest. also not sure why it is such a big story.

It's a big deal because that is illegal in most of the country, and it shouldn't be. Remember the massive circus show trial that Kevorkian was put through?

 

[Brovane]

I was caught off guard by this. I had no idea that assisted suicide was legal anywhere. I thought this was a long way off. Luckily for her, it came in time. I've seen how people die from this. To declare the authority to deny them a choice is perfectly immoral. People who claim our lives aren't ours to take are just religious idiots who need to STFU.

In Oregon is has been legal since 1994 and was even affirmed by a vote in 1997. It works fairly well in Oregon and could probably be a framework for how to implement it nationwide.

Excellent movie on the sbject.

http://www.howtodieinoregon.com/

 

[Brovane]

That's interesting. But I thought that most life insurance policies would have to pay in cases of suicide anyway if the policy has been in effect for more than two years?

You are correct. I think however they put this in their so the Life Insurance industry couldn't engage in any shenningans. I think also work policies are interesting because I think they might be renewed every year. Not sure about that one.

 

[Brainonska511]

Cancer will almost certainly never be totally cured because it's not just one thing. It's not a virus, bacteria, or parasite that causes it. It's a non-specific mutation of cells that start replicating and taking the place of health cells. Not only are their different causes for the same type of cancer, there can be different mutations that cause it to start in the first place.

I think we'll get better at treating cancer, but never be able to cure it.

I'm quite aware of the nature of cancer. But it isn't quite random mutations - many cancer types have specific defects (either the wayward genes that cause uncontrolled growth are similar, or the now-faulty protein(s) are the same (even with different mutations), etc) that could lead to specific treatments. To put it briefly, it's a challenging, multifaceted problem which will take years and years and years to even solve a part of it, and it won't be a single solution that solves the whole cancer problem.

 

[LegendKiller]

Well...to each their own I guess, but as someone who has been very close to people who choose to either make the ultimate decision or simply make numerous attempts, suicide is an ugly and dirty business. I don't care if it's on a hospital bed and endorsed by many others, I don't like the idea or act of suicide.

I also don't like the act of extending your life by mere months to the cost of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, to society. It is selfish.

My dad died of Esophageal cancer last year. I saw a guy that was strong as an ox lose almost 100lbs in the span of a year because he couldn't eat. He couldn't even drink water because it would cause uncontrollable gag reactions from the tumor in his throat. He had to sit around watching everybody eat around him while the tumor slowly took over this whole neck until it spread to every other organ in his chest. The liquid food gave him horrible heart burn and continually made him burp acidic gas, further burning his tumor/throat. The feeding tube constantly got stuck despite the most careful care in cleaning, backing up the food and bursting the tubes, it would spill food everywhere ruining carpet.

I gave him the option of whatever treatment I could find, mainly because it wasn't my decision. An experimental drug cost $15,000/mo. That's $15,000/mo that society then had to bear, one way or another, through grouped risk sharing.

It didn't do any good. He continued to shrink, losing weight, muscle, and his mind. In the end he wore a diaper because he had lost so much muscle mass and was so doped up he couldn't even control his bodily functions.

When he died my mom emptied out his drugs. I asked the hospice nurse how much some of it cost. Thousands upon thousands of dollars, tens of thousands.

If we took a rationale perspective on death in this country he could have used a whole bunch of pot and died peacefully. Instead, we are told to fight every second in a hopeless battle, withering away to nothing and dying without dignity.

Terri Schaivo wouldn't have happened in a rational society, nor would Jahi McMath.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm quite aware of the nature of cancer. But it isn't quite random mutations - many cancer types have specific defects (either the wayward genes that cause uncontrolled growth are similar, or the now-faulty protein(s) are the same (even with different mutations), etc) that could lead to specific treatments. To put it briefly, it's a challenging, multifaceted problem which will take years and years and years to even solve a part of it, and it won't be a single solution that solves the whole cancer problem.

I guess my point it when people say "cure cancer!" it's not as easy as it sounds because cancer is a conglomeration of many different things. It's like saying "why can't we cure the common cold?" Well... 200+ different viruses can cause colds!

 

[zinfamous]

I'm quite aware of the nature of cancer. But it isn't quite random mutations - many cancer types have specific defects (either the wayward genes that cause uncontrolled growth are similar, or the now-faulty protein(s) are the same (even with different mutations), etc) that could lead to specific treatments. To put it briefly, it's a challenging, multifaceted problem which will take years and years and years to even solve a part of it, and it won't be a single solution that solves the whole cancer problem.

you're confusing the process of random mutations with some idea that the mutations themselves, are random. They are not.

The process of mutation is a relatively random occurrence, however. That is what this means.

But yes, every cancer is astonishingly unique, and treatments and even cures that have worked for some will never work for others.

 

[zerocool84]

Here is one of those stupid people.

And that God was the one that gave her cancer.

 

[Jeff7]

I guess my point it when people say "cure cancer!" it's not as easy as it sounds because cancer is a conglomeration of many different things. It's like saying "why can't we cure the common cold?" Well... 200+ different viruses can cause colds!

Well fine, then approach the problem differently.
If you can't change the fact that there's a crapton of things out there that also want to call your body home, change the way it reacts.


All we need is the equivalent of the source code for DNA and a suitable compiler. Then we can really start fixing all the stupid bugs, and maybe implement some better checksum routines and get cancer resolved at the same time.

Colds: Maybe just a status indicator like a circular rash under the wrist? Just something to indicate that you've got uninvited guests. No need for headaches and semi-functional muscles that complain every time you have to move. And mucus production....ugh.
The body's response for everything:
1) Try inflammation, and also increase the temperature a few degrees.
2) Did it work? No? Make some mucus.
3) The mucus didn't work yet? There's probably not enough of it. Make more.
4) Still no luck? More inflammation.