Soccer Dad

A real medical outrage

A little while ago I posted about "The washington post's medical ethics." I complained that the Post made a debate whether it was good to have developed a treatment that was only going to help black people. There's no debate, if the treatment leads people to live healthier and longer lives that's a good thing. If genetics made it so that this treatment only helps a segment of the population, I hardly see what is wrong with that.
On the other hand Parshablog links to this article from New Scientist that says:

WOMEN in Europe who happen to be of Ashkenazi Jewish descent may want to keep that fact from their doctor when being tested for breast cancer genes.

Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City won a European patent on 1 July covering a specific mutation in the BRCA2 gene, which increases the risk of breast cancer. The mutation is found in 1 in 100 women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. The ruling means that doctors offering tests for BRCA2 mutations are now legally obliged to ask women if they are Ashkenazi Jews. If they say they are, doctors must pay a licence fee to Myriad. No fee is due if a patient says she does not know.

The differences are these:
1) In the case of the heart treatment, a treatment has been developed. This treatment only helps a certain ethnic group.
2) In the case of the breast cancer screening, this isn't about a treatment. It's about a test that's available for everyone. But only one group has to pay an extra fee for it.
Clearly the second case is objectionable.

Posted by SoccerDad at July 12, 2005 07:28 AM | TrackBack