Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
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Question: Treating Africans with an untested Ebola drug. It was reported in The Guardian last week that Emergency, an Italian NGO, administered an untested heart drug known as Amiodarone, to patients at an Ebola treatment centre in Lakka, Sierra Leone . The British medics sent to work at the centre raised alarm as early as November about Emergency's approaches to palliative care . Amiodarone, a drug licenced to regulate the heartbeat, has never been tested outside of a lab setting to treat humans or animals infected with Ebola . It was neither approved by the Sierra Leonean health ministry nor listed among the 53 drugs that have an antiviral effect on Ebola . In a report to UK Med, the British healthcare professionals argued that "the toxic side effects of Amiodarone could in fact be contributing to increased morbidity within the ETC [ebola treatment centre]" . While the mortality rate at Emergency's centre is disputed - ranging from 58 and 67 percent - the death rate at centres run by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), for instance, ranges from 50 and 60 percent . Most alarming is the concern that foreign-run Ebola treatment centres could be using unorthodox testing methods with impunity . Emergency's use of Amiodarone without a proper clinical trial or patient consent prompted censure from a senior scientist about the recklessness of this approach and a walk-out over safety fears by the UK health workers sent to work at the treatment centre . Apparently, the NGO stopped using the drug after receiving a request from the Department of International Development (DFID) , which had been alerted by the British medics . When rumours circulated early-on during the Ebola outbreak, that the virus was a form of bio warfare , critics were quick to label these ideas "conspiracy theories" . Yet ,  fears about western medicine being used to harm are neither irrational nor far-fetched . As unconscionable as Emergency's practices appear , there is a long history of unethical drug testing on poor and vulnerable communities across the globe . Perhaps one of the most famous cases of unethical experimental treatment was in 1932 when Public Health Service in the United States began the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" at a time when there was no known cure for syphilis . The study initially included 600 black men - 399 with and 201 without syphilis  - most of whom were poor and illiterate sharecroppers enticed with incentives such as free medical exams, meals on examination days, and promises that their relatives would receive burial stipends in the event of their deaths . The men were deceived into thinking that they were being treated for "bad blood" . They neither received proper treatment nor were they informed of the true nature of the study . Instead of lasting for six months, as originally projected, the study went on for 40 years . When penicillin was developed to treat syphilis in 1947 , treatment was withheld from all 600 subjects . In 1973, a class action suit was filed on behalf of the men in the study and settled out of court for $9 million . Similar experiments were held in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948 , when Public Health Service infected 1,610 total soldiers, female commercial sex workers, prisoners and mental health patients with one of three sexually transmitted diseases - syphilis, gonorrhoea, or chancroid . Like the Tuskegee experiment, none of the human subjects were informed about the nature of the study , nor did they give consent . Unlike the Tuskegee study, however, patients in Guatemala were eventually inoculated with penicillin though it is unclear how many were actually cured . Although vulnerable adult populations have borne the brunt of unethical medical testing , children have not been spared . In the mid-nineties, the world's largest research-based drug company, Pfizer, administered the experimental drug, Trovan, during a meningitis outbreak in Kano in northern Nigeria . The parents of eleven children who died sued Pfizer , alleging that Trovan was used without their informed consent . Pfizer eventually settled out of court in 2009, promising to pay the Kano state government $75 million . For too long, the bodies of poor and vulnerable communities have been exploited to serve the medical fetishes of big pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and Western governments . Yet ,  there is a growing tide against this warped practice . In his 2014 Reith lecture series entitled 'The Future of Medicine', renowned surgeon, writer and public health researcher Dr Atul Gawande argued convincingly that the well- being of a patient is more important than his/her "health" . Therefore ,  the goal of medical practice should be "caring", and not simply "curing" . In the age of Ebola, it appears that the single-minded pursuit to "cure" has somehow superseded the Hippocratic Oath to which doctors must adhere to "do no harm" . The sudden race to find an antidote for Ebola- a disease that has been around since 1976- must not serve as an excuse to experiment on patients whose internal organs are at risk of shutting down . Unethical drug testing must be matched with harsh punishment, now and after Ebola . We must insist on a probe of the dubious treatment regime adopted by the Italian NGO Emergency, followed by criminal prosecution in the event of malpractice . They must answer to patients at the Lakka treatment centre in Sierra Leone .

Answer: It was reported in The Guardian last week that Emergency, an Italian NGO, administered an untested heart drug known as Amiodarone, to patients at an Ebola treatment centre in Lakka, Sierra Leone Amiodarone, a drug licenced to regulate the heartbeat, has never been tested outside of a lab setting to treat humans or animals infected with Ebola


Question: There is no debate about torture. The Senate Intelligence Committee's scathing torture report not only described the brutality of the CIA's interrogation methods, but also demonstrated their ineffectiveness . Led by ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, former Bush administration officials have rushed to the airwaves to defend the CIA . "I would do it again in a minute," Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press , claiming that Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) produced "actionable intelligence that kept us safe from attacks" . Cheney & Co may not win the debate , but they have succeeded in muddying the waters . That is unfortunate because, beneath their bombastic caricatures of the torture programme, there's more agreement than first appears among people who actually count . Aside from former officials trying to save their reputations, it isn't one camp saying torture didn't "work" and one saying it did . Rather , it's one camp saying it didn't, and the other saying "we have no idea but did it anyway" . On several key points, the CIA is closer in substance to the Senate report than to its loudest defenders . 'Unprepared' for torture . The Senate report found that the CIA was "unprepared" to operate a detention and interrogation system . The Agency's written response to the report says;"We fully agree" - the CIA had "no cadre of trained and experienced interrogators, little experience handling and moving prisoners, and no core competency in prison management . [...] The Agency had too few analysts and linguists with the expertise required to support[a detention] programme" . In other words ,  there is no dispute that the programme was started and run on the fly . A critical finding of the Senate report was that torturing detainees did not yield otherwise unobtainable actionable intelligence . CIA director, John O Brennan, admitted that the agency "has not concluded that it was the use of EITs that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees" . So while the CIA still maintains that it gained valuable intelligence from detainees , it is not saying the abusive methods produced it . The Senate report also describes how the CIA sought out two psychiatrists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, to construct the torture programme instead of actual experienced interrogators, on the assumption that long-established humane and lawful interrogation methods wouldn't work . In its response, the CIA acknowledged that it had to look beyond the agency to find experts on "non-standard means of interrogation" since it was not an area of expertise that CIA officers or the US government possessed . The CIA called Mitchell and Jessen's background "so unique" that the agency "would have been derelict had[it] not sought them out when it became clear that CIA would be heading into the uncharted territory of the programme" . In other words ,  the torture programme was so out of whack with what professional interrogators do that the CIA had to go outside the US government to find people to do it . There still are important areas of disagreement between the Senate report and the CIA . The CIA is too protective of its own to acknowledge the full import of its descent into torture or to disavow the programme entirely . But the agency - unlike its loudest defenders - is not endorsing torture as a means of gaining intelligence or keeping the country safe . To be sure , basing the case against torture on its total ineffectiveness is a risky proposition . Torture produces a lot of information and while victims frequently make things up to ease their suffering , they may also on occasion say things of some value . That's why it is important to remember that torture is illegal under any circumstances regardless of its utility . But in a democracy, the strength of legal norms depends partly on their acceptance by the public . So while the public shouldn't have to be persuaded that barbaric methods fail to make them safer , doing so reinforces their illegality . The flurry of media appearances by Cheney and other torture defenders has created a false sense that there is a genuine divide over whether torture"works" . But neither the CIA nor professional interrogators actually say that . So while we can continue to debate other aspects of the CIA programme , including whether those responsible should be sanctioned , let's stop pretending that there are two legitimate sides to this particular story .

Answer: The Senate Intelligence Committee's scathing torture report not only described the brutality of the CIA's interrogation methods, but also demonstrated their ineffectiveness "I would do it again in a minute," Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press


Question: State of the Union: Advice for Joni Ernst. Here's a suggestion for Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa , who will deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union address Tuesday night . Get a chorus together and open with this old Sammy Cahn-Jule Styne number:"It seems to me I've heard that song before; it's from an old familiar score, I know it well, that melody." Advance leaks of the president's address indicate he will call for higher taxes on the wealthy and successful in order to pay for programs for the poor and middle class . This is boilerplate Democratic wealth redistribution we've heard since New Deal days , which appeals more to emotions than it does to principles with a long history of success . Since the advent of modern "anti-poverty" programs 50 years ago, according to an analysis by The Heritage Foundation, "U.S  taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs." And yet the poverty rate remains essentially unchanged . One might conclude then that if you've spent 50 years and $22 trillion trying without success to fix something , perhaps you're doing it wrong and should try a different approach . If the goal is more successful people who can take care of themselves , incentives must be put in place to encourage people to make right decisions . First on any anti-poverty help-the-middle-class list must be a stable family life . A two-parent home where adults love and are committed to each other and in which their children feel loved creates a climate in which moral and economic values like hard work, self-control, personal responsibility and accountability flourish . To help achieve this, parents must be educated and they must have jobs . Government can make this easier by reforming the tax code to remove the "marriage penalty," which in too many instances charges higher taxes to married couples than to singles, and increasing the exemption deductible for children, which might make it possible for one parent to stay home with young children; allow college tuition to be deductible to incentivize more people to obtain a college education and ease their debt upon graduation . Better yet, scrap the tax code entirely and replace it with a flat tax or consumption tax that allows people to save, invest and spend more of the money they earn . Economically, there must be a change in attitude from working to pay bills, to working to build wealth . Bills, like the poor, we will always have with us, but in building wealth one moves toward independence and personal satisfaction that pays dividends in liberty and personal choice . Government should also make it easier for people to move in pursuit of new opportunities . My late grandfather worked for the B and O Railroad for 50 years . He retired with a pension, a gold-plated watch and a lifetime train pass . Those days are long gone . People need to be ready to move to places in pursuit of opportunities that can bring economic and career growth . Earning more produces more in taxable income and more income means more tax money for federal and state treasuries . My wife and I have moved eight times (so far) and each move provided new opportunities, more experience and eventually higher incomes . Here's another suggestion for Sen  Ernst and the new Republican Congress . Let the Democrats focus on misery, poverty and failure . You promote hope, opportunity and achievement . Begin featuring people with stories to tell of how they overcame difficult circumstances -- from poverty, welfare, addiction, single motherhood, and so on -- and are now independent, strong and if not prosperous, then at least free of their addiction to government . Leaders should inspire others to follow examples of people who have succeeded in life . Instead ,  the Democrats' mantra has been that the poor and middle class can't succeed without government help . If that were true , the money spent on programs aimed at the poor and middle class would have succeeded by now . It's long past time for a new direction and for a new "song" with different words . In the month we observe the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr , how about "We HAVE overcome"?

Answer:
Here's a suggestion for Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa