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When making decisions about medical procedures, we yearn for complete information about the risks and benefits. Unfortunately, we will never know everything. The question is, when do we know enough to be reasonably assured that undergoing a particular procedure or taking a particular drug is worth the risk? Consider blood transfusions, for example. When would you have deemed blood transfusions safe enough to consent to one?
We’ll start at the beginning.
In 1665, Richard Lower solved a fundamental problem of blood transfusions: clotting. Once exposed to air, blood quickly clots, making it impossible to transfuse. After draining large quantities of blood from a dog and causing it to go into shock, Lower’s solution was to use a series of tubes to connect an artery from a healthy dog to a vein of the dying dog. It worked, saving the dog’s life.
Two years later, four blood ...
