Wix comments on Biohacking in New York, Cybernetics and first Cyborg Hate Crime: theverge.com - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MatthewBaker 08 August 2012 06:00PM

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Comment author: aelephant 08 August 2012 11:51:20PM 3 points [-]

Off-topic, but why is it illegal to use anesthetic?

Sarver was trying a technique he learned in the military to block out the pain, since it was illegal to administer anesthetic for his procedure.

Comment author: [deleted] 09 August 2012 09:24:49PM 4 points [-]

Aside from running the risk of hurting yourself, you can mess up - real bad, first of a lot of local anesthetics usually contain a cocktail of the anesthetic agent and adrenalin(epinephrine), adrenalin is useful because it induces contraction of the blood vesicles at high concentrations that results in more precise anesthetics, you require a lower dose as well as the prolongs the effect. Though if one uses this cocktail at an end-artery fingers, toes, penis etc. you risk cutting the blood flow to that part of your body, this can result in tissue damage even necrosis (cell death). If you by mistake inject a local anesthesia into an artery/vein there can be rather adverse effects as well.

Comment author: aelephant 10 August 2012 12:41:26AM 1 point [-]

You can hurt yourself any number of ways that are completely legal.

The argument "X should be illegal because it can be dangerous" doesn't work for me.

If you don't want to get into the political discussion my statement is drawing us into, I totally understand.

Comment author: Nisan 11 August 2012 07:15:05AM 2 points [-]

I'm confused because Wix responded to a question of the form "Why is X illegal" with an answer of the form "X is illegal because Y", and you seemed to respond as if they had said "X should be illegal because Y".

I'm not sure if it was a good idea to point this out.

Comment author: aelephant 11 August 2012 07:26:24AM 1 point [-]

You're right. He didn't make the argument "X should be illegal because Y" but the fact that "X is illegal because Y" raises the question, at least to me, should it be so? Is it rational?

Comment author: Nisan 11 August 2012 07:54:50AM 1 point [-]

Fair enough. On-topic, I feel the most relevant fact is how many people would get hurt if anesthesia were legal.

Comment author: aelephant 11 August 2012 10:43:24AM 1 point [-]

If that's the downside of Anesthesia being legal, you need to also weigh the benefits on the scale. I imagine it would probably be much cheaper & easier to get, therefore it would be more widely used and many more people could avoid pain if they wanted to.

Comment author: Nisan 12 August 2012 09:13:56AM 1 point [-]

Good point; I agree that the expected benefit is an equally relevant fact.

Comment author: Maelin 13 August 2012 02:23:34AM 0 points [-]

I really genuinely love that this is a community where exchanges like this can occur, and everyone can get back to the discussion immediately with no hard feelings. Upvoted both for a well-handled misunderstanding.

Comment author: [deleted] 10 August 2012 09:52:33AM 0 points [-]

I don't have have a strong opinion about it, but I guess often times there are regulation on things that "can be used for X (which is desirable) , but can easily result in Y (which is dangerous) with out proper training/preparation." take, driving for example. Another more cynical explanation is that the law protects the interest of the medical practitioners e.i. earmark procedures such as stitching, for their benefit.

Comment author: MatthewBaker 10 August 2012 12:03:00AM 0 points [-]

Cocaine seems to avoid much of these problems when used as a local anesthetic but its also hard to acquire in pure form in the US

Comment author: [deleted] 10 August 2012 09:35:38AM *  1 point [-]

Well, cocaine is a vasoconstrictor in it's own right, that is it mediates the effect of adrenaline and the anesthetic, so you'll still have problems with end arteries. Though I guess injecting into a artery/vein, would have rather pleasant "side effects".