Medical science not 'wasted money'

Upon reading Chris Edwards' latest column, "Money wasted on medical research," (March 6) we had to make a judgment call: Does he actually believe what he writes, or is he simply trying to stir up controversy where none exists? We're not going to over-estimate his intellect, and so we shall assume he's serious, at least in the charges he labels against medicine. \nEdwards is not wrong in saying the goal of medical science should be to improve the quality of people's lives. We believe it is. Vaccinations, anesthetics, public health, medications are all designed to improve the quality of life. During the last 30 years, the focus of medicine has shifted from prolonging life unnaturally to improving palliative care and the quality of life until death.\nThe disdain Edwards has for cancer research is surprising to us. It seems your attitude toward cancer is simply for the patient, once diagnosed, to give up and die. This is easy for a healthy 22-year-old to say, but how about a 40-year-old breast cancer patient with young children? Chemotherapy and radiation treatments, of which you speak so disparagingly, have the potential to cure her or at least prolong her life considerably. Perhaps prolonging life should be the goal, sometimes. In any case, the patient always has a choice, despite the influence of well-written IDS editorials.\nEdwards said, "No facet of American society has made less progress in the last 100 years than medicine." How about antibiotics? Insulin for diabetics? The complete eradication of smallpox, polio and soon-to-be measles? Anesthetics for surgeries? Medical imaging? Vaccinations? Gene therapy? The human genome project? We'd appreciate it if you would cite your sources; lest we spend our entire lives in careers with no hope of actually helping people. \n"Doctors remain baffled by cancer, AIDS, and even the common cold," Edwards wrote. The complexities of these diseases make them unable to be explained to you in the context of this letter, but we invite him to stop by the Jordan Hall library and peruse one of the dozens of journals written about treating these ailments.\n"I could learn to prescribe antibiotics and check prostates with nothing more than a weekend seminar and a Chinese finger trap," Edwards said. We invite him to come and give a lecture on this to our class. Normally, we study pharmacology for a year, but, hell, if we can learn it from you in a weekend, we're all for it.\nAs we re-read this column, we've come to this conclusion: He can't possibly be serious. But, if not, the next time you get seriously ill, we suggest you consult a senior history major.