Are Miracle Drugs Available To All Of Us?

by Dennis Townsend, Contributing Writer  

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

With advances in medicine, we have made great strides advancing the life expectancy in the world, but there are still some diseases that are stubborn and require aggressive treatments such as the current Ebola virus. Scientists work feverishly to come up with new medicines to battle these hard to cure ailments, and usually they do, but the trouble is that when they do come up with these miracle cures, they can’t be used right away because The Federal Drug Administration, FDA, requires a certain amount of testing before these new drugs can become available to the masses, and then, can the masses afford it?

For each new drug that scientists come up with, it could take years before the FDA deems it safe for human application. This is very discouraging to families with a loved one with only so much time to live, who is suffering, and a medicine that has just been produced to ease the suffering, and perhaps maybe even cure the disease, can’t be administered because the drug must go through a battery of testing.  Now there are some patients who are eligible for what they call “clinical trials”, but these patients are usually from well to do families because the new drug, most of the time, is very expensive. That in itself is a travesty because to lose one’s life just because they don’t have enough money for the newest medicines is unconscionable. This is a problem that must be addressed because all scientific research is funded by the government to which we all pay our taxes. One group of people should not be considered better than any other group, and to play God with someone’s life because of the amount of money one has is just not right

My belief is that the newest forms of treatment should be allocated to patients whose time is short, and there is no other options available. Regardless of the amount of money they have or the type of insurance they carry, every life is precious. Hospitals, doctors, scientists, and researchers make enormous amounts of money for all they do, and I for one do not deny that they undoubtedly deserve it, but somehow we must not forget about the people who’s lives are at stake just because they can’t buy a little more time to live. To be compassionate enough to put forth whatever effort it takes to save a human being is not only the right thing to do, but it would also define who we actually are.

DLTPONCH33