Being a human guinea pig

[B33R]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2092527,00.html

Lois Rogers, Richard Woods and Brian Deer investigate how a drug trial left six men battling for life

I heard of this story when it happened but never bothered to read up on it further. Here's a very good news story explaining the whole situation.
I'm sure everyone knows that being a human guinea pig and testing new drugs is risky but surely no one would've expected that it could actually lead to death or, in this case, near death.

I don't think I'd ever do anything like that but I suppose it is an attractive proposition if you need the money. It also looks like it's advertised in a very misleading way to lure in unsuspecting people.

My questions:
Has anyone here ever tested drugs as a human guinea pig or more importantly, would you (before you heard this happened)?

[writespeak]

Wow. That isn't on the list of things I'd do. :eek2:

I've taken part in a couple of medical studies, but there was no risk to me. For one of them, I got paid $50 to donate a blood sample. For the other one, I responded to a survey that a grad student in Nutrition was doing as part of her thesis. (Well, that's sort of medical.) I got to see the student's write-up of the survey. Her conclusions were apparently the ones she'd expected to reach and weren't all supported by the data. Medical doctors sometimes do that too. :tanky:

Lois