Hacker News Reader

Maybe they can do so voluntarily. If you exclude people from the program because they're not bending to the will of "my tax dollars" arguments you'll assuredly lose out on talented people in a small specialization pool.

View on HN

My understanding is that there are literally hundreds of qualified, passionate applicants for each spot. I've met a few. If we are spending billions of dollars to strap that particular person to a rocket, I think humanity should be able to benefit as much as possible. I don't think its unreasonable to have as a requirement for that service that certain health records might not remain private. Just like it would not be unreasonable to require certain high level public servants to divulge their tax records, as long as it was understood as a requirement beforehand.

The problem is not, if we have enough applicants. It's did THESE people agree to it. If not, it's wrong to disclose this data publicly without their consent. This is an example of better to ask permission, not forgiveness.

Combined with the notion that I'm sure the paper will be anonmised and re-released. I'd even bet this is a non-issue. (Assuming the assertions previously made in this thread of course).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com