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Dominic Nutt

The Independent View: Commons must debate key Medical Innovation Bill before election

By Dominic Nutt | Thu 19th February 2015 - 8:55 am

Maurice Saatchi’s Medical innovation Bill has caused controversy and inspired a passionate debate on how doctors and scientists can and should speed up medical advance for currently incurable diseases.

The Bill is designed to do two things. First, it will offer clarity and confidence to doctors who want to innovate and move away from standard procedures.

When might that be relevant? In most cases standard procedures work and innovation is unnecessary. There is a vast quantity of scientifically validated data which supports standard medical procedures.

But in some cases – specially for rare and incurable diseases –  there is little scientific data and no effective treatments. In such cases, a doctor and the patient may face a choice, between applying the standard treatments, even though they are known not to work and will lead only to death, or to try something new.

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged , and | 64 Comments
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  • Tim Rogers
    Thank you for this insightful article. Everything seems to be moving at an ever increasing speed and therefore struggling to catch one's breath. Every nation an...
  • Adam
    "Actually, it was rearmament in the 1930s that pulled countries out of the Great Depression and proved that government deficit spending would boost the economy....
  • Nigel Jones
    @Jana, you hit the nail on the head about not opposing someone just because they self-describe as Christian (even perhaps theologically conservative); the key i...
  • Jana
    @ Tim Rogers Actually, it was rearmament in the 1930s that pulled countries out of the Great Depression and proved that government deficit spending would boos...
  • David Warren
    What @MickTaylor said!...