Thursday, May 26, 2011

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

A lot of effort has been expended on treatment, and rightfully so. The women who are subjected to breast cancer should be treated as best we are able. However, the other side is prevention, which some effort has been expended. Figuring out why women get breast cancer in the first, and subsequently figuring out how to prevent it should receive a significant amount of effort itself.

How to balance the two is challenging. By using money raised to learn about prevention takes money away from those suffering right now. Using money for treatment instead of prevention causes many more women to be subjected to breast cancer. There may not be an easy answer to this dilemma.

In my opinion, equal effort should be expended on each side of the equation. This has the obvious "it's fair" factor, but also, it shows equal respect to those who are suffering now and those for whom we may be able to prevent that suffering.