Science has advanced by leaps and bounds over the years, with much of the results are achieved through plenty of research and knowledge. One of the areas of research where we spend the most funds on is medical research. With the rise of poverty and healthcare costs, complaints on expensive medical research being a waste of funds have arose.
The thoughts behind these complaints are that the result of these researches benefit more to some parties–such as medical institutions for the profit they might get, a country for its ‘name’, and the researchers for their satisfaction– instead of the public, and how massive amount of funding have been allocated for medical research yet no definite cures have been found for widespread diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer. Majority of medical research uses a considerable amount of money, especially when dealing about terminal diseases.
While it is true that there are people who cannot afford the fruit of these researches, I feel that we shouldn’t overlook the advantages that medical research have brought upon humanity because health is more valuable than money, therefore research should be allowed to continue serving its purpose in improving the health of mankind. The high quality of medical care we enjoy today is built upon years of effort by medical professionals investigating the various kinds of illnesses with numerous researches. It’s these researches that let us know what we know today.
Not only have medical research provided us with the names and symptoms, but also the causes which are the most critical aspect. It is so because once we know how diseases are caused and spread, we can find the cure. In the past, malaria might have been regarded as a grave incurable disease. Now, however, there have been cures for it. It is, too, important to learn how to prevent causes of illnesses from growing because from that we could work out ways to eliminate the cause altogether, and all of these can only be achieved through medical research.
After all, it’s ‘better safe than sorry’. Preventative medicine is one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine. Diseases that were once common are now very rare because of this type of medicine, or normally called ‘vaccine’. For instance, the research into polio vaccines spent a significant amount of funds, but it was a wonderful success. Additionally, the price for the vaccine is very reasonable, showing that medical research doesn’t always result in expensive treatments.
The medications for dengue fever has found thanks to medical research. However, intensive experiments have found an evidently cheaper and easily obtainable natural medication, which is papaya leaf juice. It is also notable that along with the progression of the medical sector, healthcare costs and medicines for many common illnesses are now cheaper than they were in the past. With new discoveries regarding the substances used to make the medicines, less expensive substances are used and therefore making them cheaper and more accessible.
It is also to be considered that if we disallow a research for continuing just because of expenditure reason, we risk destroying its value entirely. For example, the research into cancer has gone for a long period. It is a pity to stop it because that would mean destroying the value of ongoing multi-year studies. Even though it is true that current research hasn’t resolved the issues of cancer and other ‘currently incurable’ diseases, there is no impossibility of future experiments may do.
Rather than discontinuing expensive medical research, there should be conditions set in funding process to decide whether a research could benefit the public in the long run. Funds should better go to experiments into terminal diseases rather than experiments into illnesses which cure have been found, are less harmful, or are very scarce. The government could help who cannot afford proper healthcare by giving healthcare benefits to the poor and encourage more Non-Profit Organization to grow so that poor people can gain access to costly healthcare when they need it.
This would be a better idea than to stop medical research altogether. To conclude it all, medical research should be carried on for the sake of public health. Everyone is concerned about their health, not just the rich, or the poor. Due to that, it would be wiser to put more emphasize on the advantages of medical research, and not the expenditures. However, we cannot ignore the fact that some people cannot afford the healthcare fees. In addressing this issue, the government should take part to ensure the health of its population by giving aid in terms of finance.