"Researchers grapple with the ethics of testing brain implants"

"The episode highlights a tricky dilemma for companies and research teams involved in deep brain stimulation (DBS) research: If trial participants want to keep their implants, who will take responsibility—and pay—for their ongoing care? And participants in last week’s meeting said it underscores the need for the growing corps of DBS researchers to think long-term about their planned studies... 

“The big issue becomes cost,” she says. “We transition from having grants and device donations” covering costs, to patients being responsible. And although the participants agreed to those conditions before enrolling in the trial, Mayberg says she considers it a “moral responsibility” to advocate for lower costs for her patients, even it if means “begging for charity payments” from hospitals. And she worries about what will happen to trial participants if she is no longer around to advocate for them. “What happens if I retire, or get hit by a bus?” she asks."

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/researchers-grapple-ethics-testing-brain-implants?utm_content=buffer28b00&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

FB: People are asking to keep implanted devices from clinical trials, and researchers are searching for ways to provide care for them after the end of the trial