With remarkable timing, news of a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenager left in a permanent vegetative state after a routine endoscopy coincides with the announcement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Premarket Approval for the SEDASYS® system, a computer-assisted personalized sedation system. The patient was not anesthetized using a SEDASYS machine or any other form of robo-anesthesia, of course.  According to the May 1st New York Daily News article, “The suit to be filed in Westchester Supreme Court alleges that doctors improperly administered anesthesia in failing to consider the patient’s height and weight; improperly monitored her vital signs; excessively inflated her abdomen, causing cardiac arrest, and removed a breathing tube prematurely.”  The point of the juxtaposition of the two news items is to highlight the inherent risks of routine anesthesia even when administered and monitored by experienced anesthesiologists. The SEDASYS manufacturer, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., a...