TWC - Week 6 discussion

There are a few interesting topics discussed during the lesson.

1) Gene therapy and modification
This is a really hot ethical debate topic nowadays, and maybe in the near future as well.
Many have accused the religious in America for intervening and halting the development of possible future technologies, such as stem cell, which could be the pinnacle of human medication technology. I am wondering... is their ethical arguments valid at all? I do not have time to do extra researches for this week, but it is a question which I will certainly keep in mind.

2) Healthcare coverage rate in developing countries
This is another topic for monday's discussion. Rampant corruption, weak infrastructure and low education level have decreased the effectiveness of aid/medications donated by other countries. Is there a way to fix this? Actually, there is, and that is UN's role as an international organization authorized to provide help for the poorest and sickest people in the world. If a consensus can be reached to let UN bypass each government's sovereign reign on the aids given and let the UN people manage everything, I still think it is possible to target those people.
The problem here is that, many of developing countries' governments are not capable enough to make a systematic and efficient distribution plan for this poor people, nor would they want to spend resources on this so-called "half-dead" kind of people. I am pretty sure that is what they are thinking... With high fertility rate in developing countries, I must say that the deaths of the AIDS-afflicted group of people will not affect their population growth rate... It is a huge moral ignorance on the government's part.

All right, before I sound too accusing, I am not generalizing all the developing country's gov't under that category. Some are sincerely trying to help, but have no resources to. Still, NGOs and international bodies are the way to go to solve this problem. Somebody please go and organize an event so that developing countries can bring all their health ministers together with the UN people. Maybe some sort of consensus would be reached there.

3)Rising cost of healthcare
Big Pharma and profit. A student in my class said, "It's all about the money, money, and money". And... I agree with him. There is no way pharma company would produce something that's efficient and cheap. They will be experiencing losses. Still, the way big pharma companies nowadays do thing really annoy me. Why could not doctors prescribe generic drugs when those would do the job? No need for some high-end fancy medications which cost 10X more than generic drugs. It seems like a huge scheme to reap off fat profit from sick people.

So, what I want to know is this. Is it possible to bring to cost down, clamp down on disproportionate price increase with medication effectiveness by a lot of pharma companies, and make the doctors prescribe cheaper drugs?

Is drug/medications all that bad? I do not think it is fair for all those in pharma industry if we brand them all so.
Is insurance all that bad? I do not think so.

Without medication, a lotta of sick people would have died (e.g. antibiotics to stop inflammation and infection - usually human body could not cope with infection's rate of growth).

Without insurance, a lot of people will feel insecure when they fall sick - maybe make it even worse for their illnesses.

As always, technology and innovation are not all that bad. It is human vices which make them into instruments of.... profit-making.