"some had health insurance but did not have enough money in the bank to cover their out-of-pocket obligations"
Gosh! Well, doesn't that show out of touch these company execs are? Ordinary people having to choose between scraping by surviving and paying medical bills. How very quaint.
"discussion about the ethics of self-experimentation"
Is this another variation of the assisted dying argument ? I,e. "It's my body". Personally (and Iemohasise that word), I feel that if it's the best option, you should go for it.
> bank notes, as they also have a standard weight due to standerdized size and production method.
LOL, I worked for a bank branch located in a low socio-economic area. The pubs and bars would come in on Monday morning with huge wads of bank notes, wet with beer and whiskey, and it all had to be hand-counted as machines couldn't do it. We then had to bundle up excess notes and heat-shrink wrap them. I'm sure there were some pretty interesting bacterial colonies growing in there!
UK reader here... As someone who's lived with a dear friend's cancer and affects of cancer for the past few years, I'd say that early/earlier diagnosis by whatever method is to be welcomed. However, if you then can't treat the disease then surely the early diagnosis will be for nothing? Sadly, with incidences of cancers of all sorts apparently increasing exponentially, wordldwife, not having the means to treat it is heartbreaking? Actually, as much money and effort needs to be invested in finding the cause of various cancers as curing it (or trying to cure it).
I learned this from my Chemistry prof: we actually are able to "cure" cancer now, if we are able to make accurate early diagnosis. If we detect the cancer early enough that it is still local (not yet spreading to other organs in your body), a surgery will do the job. That's why early diagnosis is soooo important and is a big focus right now.
What about metastasis, you might ask. We have researches going on in this branch, too. And the big findings I heard is about immunotherapy techs. I'm not in this side of the field so cannot say much. But don't be sad, it's actually a fascinating time to be alive :)
Hey! My dog helps me do this... When I got my dog (a terrier) I thought walks would be long and somewhat arduous, but the terrier trait of needing to stop 'n sniff every few yards makes walks largely restart-based. My fitness watch confirms this - I've never seen so many red "pause" markers on the route map.
