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October 12th, 2004
The hugely popular British newspaper, The Guardian, recently ran a story highlighting the general ignorance about mesothelioma in Britain. It is not only Britain that is severely under-funded and uneducated when it comes to mesothelioma; many other civilized countries appear to be pushing this deadly and increasingly common form of cancer out of the limelight.
In the article, this is how the newspaper described mesothelioma, and what it tried to highlight to readers: it is a death sentence. But compared with diseases such as breast cancer, there is little in the way of public campaigning over the condition, or more than fractional funding of research into it. Now, surgeons are divided over a radical new solution, soon to be trialled. But it has raised an ethical question: is it better to conduct a major operation, which might lengthen life but risks killing the patient, or is it better just to ease the patient's passage to the grave?
Britain, America and Australia are amongst the countries that are expected to find themselves in the midst of a mesothelioma epidemic over the next ten to fifteen years. Yet, even with this in mind the education into this disease as well as the available resources and funding provided by the government is appalling.
