Episode Details

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss patient autonomy and the "right to try". The debate surrounding medical autonomy is intensifying as desperate patients use federal "Right-to-Try" laws and amateur biohackers bypass traditional regulations to create and access unapproved treatments. A booming gray market has emerged for unproven, compounded peptide shots, and RFK’s FDA wants to protect that access. These trends highlight a profound ethical tension between a patient's fundamental right to medical self-determination and the state's paternalistic duty to protect the clinical trial regime - which gives us the data necessary for informed consent - and to guard citizens from harm. Ultimately, regulators and bioethicists argue that without rigorous oversight, vulnerable individuals may fall victim to "snake oil" because true informed consent is impossible when a treatment's risks and efficacy remain largely unknown

“No Evidence for Trump’s Right to Try Claim” Eugene Kiely

“Right–to-Try Does Not Undermine Clinical Trials” Niklas Anzinger

“Survey: Americans Overwhelmingly Back the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments” Goldwater Institute

“Final wish denied as Colorado ALS patient's access to experimental drug stalls”  Brian Maass, Colin McIntyre

“Peptides, Patient Autonomy, and the Limits of Medical Freedom” Chuck Dinerstein

“Survey Shows Peptide Misinformation, Misuse Rising in US” Ashish Rana

“What's behind the push to make peptide therapies more readily available” Will Stone

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley