A little bit of hope…
So in January of 2006 China is going to begin clinical human trials, of the most promising spinal cord injury therapies, on 1200 patients. I find hope in this but that is combined with bitter irony.
China just recently sent a man into orbit. The USSR accomplished that on Oct 4, 1957 and the USA accomplished it on January 31, 1958. My source is
here. So there is conflict in my reasoning of this blog, but I’m still going to make my point anyway because the massive military spending in the 1970’s caused the USSR to bankrupt so that situation can support my point shortly. The USA spends on space research and now it’s not just orbit or the moon, but missile defense systems. Pretty useless if the USA had fewer enemies like China. China spends on medical research and they may possible sprint ahead of the USA in that field. I think medical research is more valuable than military feats but I’m just a peace loving Canadian.
In my hope of these trials I cannot think how I’m disappointed that this is not occurring in North America. But I have thoughts as to why. Firstly, there is far too much money to be made by charging me & my peers $6,500 for a manual wheelchair with probably only $800 worth of titanium, aluminum and rubber. That does not include the cost they throw at us for necessities such as a 2 cent rubber hose required to pee. Amazing how 2 cents worth of rubber costs me about $3. On the other spectrum of fun things as opposed to necessities, a wake board comparable to the
sitski my dad has made for me, costs about $750. The factory-made sitskis start at about $2500. My dad put about $75 into the one for me.
So obviously in this corrupt capitalistic society we couldn’t find a cure or attempt one when there’s money to be made. Now in contrast, the value of a human life is lower in communistic countries which obviously I am not in support of, but I know that not all 1200 patients are Asian and not all of the patients are being given unethical therapies. The thing is that there is less money to be made, only recognition in those countries so they are willing to go ahead without being stuck in the endless research on rats. Who knows, maybe some top line scientists in North America are even being paid to not proceed with human trials. I don’t know, just a bunch of rambling thoughts.
My conclusion because I am off to cook supper very soon is this: Communist China doesn’t value human life as we do. That I disagree with, but because of that my hope of ablebodiedness grows closer. China focused money on medical research where the USA is driven by the money they can suck out of the disabled and the products they need. The USA values life and military power (another irony for another day) but because of that they get stuck in endless research loops afraid of harming people with clinical trials. I may not be one of them, but I know there are many people willing to be guinea pigs for the risky trials. But as long as the focus is on money here, I have greater hope in China or European countries where the drive is in contributing to society instead of the money that can be made.
A final note to any non-regular readers: I am not in support of the creating-to-kill-for-research techniques. If the therapy in any way involves ending a human life or a possible human life (embryo for example), I will not support or let them perform it on me.
