Unethical Practices

Patient One

Durst hadn't seemed terribly surprised when Rey had requested the human test subjects. She had, however, asked him to wait for a while, and surprised him by asking how freshly amputated he preferred the limbs of the test subjects to be.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?"

Durst looked away from the screen and over at Rey.

"I meant what I said. Would you prefer a person who just recently lost a limb, or someone who has lived without one for a while?"

"I guess whichever is available? I mean, beggars can't be choosers."

"We're not beggars, Mr Sharpe."

It took a few moments for what she just said to sink in.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I follow."

"We have the resources to gather the ideal test subjects. If you need people who have been without limbs for a while, we can find them and offer them this opportunity. If you need people who have just recently lost limbs, we have connections with hospitals all over the world. We could even find volunteers to have an arm or a leg cut off, if you need to study the effects of immediate attachment."

Rey opened his mouth and closed it again a few times while he was trying to process this.

"I can't see an ethics committee agreeing to this" was what he finally landed on.

With an annoyed sigh, Durst responded.

"We don't have oversight of an ethics committee. That's the whole point of this operation. We do what is needed to advance the world, and if some moral considerations need to be ignored, so be it. It would be inefficient to stop to think too hard about ethics when there is progress to be made."

"How would you even find people willing to have their arms or legs cut off in the first place?"

Durst shrugged.

"Not everyone has a price, but enough people do. People who would gladly trade an arm to become rich, or a leg for treatment of their child's illness. Usually desperate people, but not always. Most non-researcher staff working here would gladly volunteer. Plenty come from disadvantaged backgrounds, sometimes even of their own making. Working here has been a second chance, with the tacit understanding that they could be called upon as test subjects. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Rey nodded slowly.

"I think I'm starting to."

"Good. I want you to think over what you need, and have a finished request by tomorrow. I'll handle the rest."

There was a part of Rey that was appalled at how easy it had been for him to detach emotionally when he'd made his request. The Director had only talked about volunteers, but he was sure that among them were some that had just been straight up kidnapped. Once he had made up his mind, though, not even that was enough to make him hesitate. He and Felicia were going through the patient file together, while preparing for surgery, after electing to try to replace a healthy leg right after they themselves removed it.

"The subject is a woman in her early 20s," Felicia read out loud. "No medical history of note, aside from a broken collar bone when she was a child. Fully vaccinated, and in good health."

"Seems promising. Is this your first surgery?"

"First one that isn't on a brain, at least. You?"

"Not my first, but the first one where I'm in charge."

"Hmm. I'll be honest, I'm not exactly brimming with confidence here. Sure, we could try and try again until we get it right, but it seems like a waste. Not to mention the unnecessary suffering we'll be causing our test subjects."