I studied a little bit of biology and a little bit of physics, and from my understanding from hearing everybody who comes to this committee, Newton's first law of physics applies to pharmacology also. Unless you have a pharmaceutical product that has zero effect, there has to be an equal and opposite effect. If it has a positive effect, it's also going to have some other effect that probably isn't desirable.
You can't call all side effects catastrophic; I think it's a question of the patient or the practitioner being able to reasonably predict what they will be, and you make a decision on what's right. If I have a terminal disease, I will take a risk that could cause my death if there's a better-than-even chance of having a positive effect at the end.