Ben Waber reviewed You Bet Your Life by Paul A Offit MD
A Sobering Run-Through of the Risks at the Edge of Medical Innovation
4 stars
Offit introduces the origins and failures in the early development of a number of medical innovations, demonstrating how hard it can be to gauge risk of still experimental treatments. I particularly liked the chapter on anesthesia, which chronicles the fascinating history of the origin of different early anesthesia drugs and the benefits and risks of them in those early days of modern medicine. Offit doesn't do a good job lining up these innovations with the developments in bioethics and medical processes, and unhelpfully mostly doesn't juxtapose risks from experimental treatments to doing nothing. Still, if you supplement this book with other readings on medical history it's an informative read. Highly recommend
Offit introduces the origins and failures in the early development of a number of medical innovations, demonstrating how hard it can be to gauge risk of still experimental treatments. I particularly liked the chapter on anesthesia, which chronicles the fascinating history of the origin of different early anesthesia drugs and the benefits and risks of them in those early days of modern medicine. Offit doesn't do a good job lining up these innovations with the developments in bioethics and medical processes, and unhelpfully mostly doesn't juxtapose risks from experimental treatments to doing nothing. Still, if you supplement this book with other readings on medical history it's an informative read. Highly recommend