Argumentative Essay: The Cure For Cancer

It is one of the most dreaded messages to receive. . . “You have cancer”. In 2017, it is estimated that 1,688,780 people in the United States will receive this news (“American Cancer Society”). A diagnosis of cancer can be devastating for a person and his or her family. Many consider a cancer diagnosis a death sentence. It is important to understand what exactly cancer is. Despite a lack of new treatment methods, cancer survival rates are increasing; not much new techniques are being used, and cancer cannot be cured unless more research is done.

“Lets not call cancer patients as patients, they are cancer fighters. They are brave hearts” - Vikrmn, Gura. Nowadays, you hear more and more people getting cancer(13). It is a stress that many people worry about. You worry if one of your parents will get it. You pray your children don't’ get it. It’s a constant worry. You watch television and you can get this horrible monster from microwaving your food, drinking bottled water, carrying your phone in your pocket, using deodorant, coloring your hair and much more. Finding a cure for cancer would be a prayer answered for many.

Across the nation and world assisted suicide is an issue that has been gaining attention for several years. With famous cases such as Jack Kevorkian it has become a household term and everyone has an opinion. There are strong cases on both sides, but the bottom line is while it may sound good for the present, it is not for the future. Assisted Suicide should not be legalized in Alabama as the negative outcomes far exceed the positive outcomes in the areas of impact on society, politics and medical education

As if having the potential of death looming over your head isn't enough, the treatments for cancer are becoming problematic as well. To be struck with cancer is something everyone is afraid of, but maybe that’s not what to fear most when contracting such a disease. The price to treat different types of cancer varies anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 a year (Berenson). Next, the patient is forced with the choice of paying for the drug, and having to pay a high price, or going without. It’s a problem that has always existed, but it finally has a name. It’s known as “Financial Toxicity”, and basically it’s the costs that diminish quality of life and impede delivery of the highest quality care (Zafar and Amy P. Abernethy). Most people hear the price and simply assume insurance will take care of it. That isn’t always the case. According to The American Cancer Society:

Finding a panacea for cancer will be an arduous task with a very lengthy and discouraging trial and error period. Inevitably there will be some trying hurdles to get past in search of this cancer panacea, but, one that seems to be the most difficult to get passed is the severity and variety of the case presented. Doctors see this as overwhelming and very daunting since they do not want to get a patient’s hopes up if the medicine turns out not to work, or cause things to get worse. If doctors believe they have found this new and astonishing drug that cures all cancer at all stages and they prescribe it but turns out to only make the cancer worse, they will have to live knowing that they hurt all of these people and their families forever. In

In 2012, the reported spending on cancer treatment was 124.6 billion dollars (Luther.) Because of these incredible expenditures, and the lack of a concrete cure for cancer, some individuals have developed the theory that cancer is a multi-billion dollar industry, and that certain companies and organizations are suppressing information about cures and treatments to keep their industry thriving. The billions of dollars generated from cancer treatment, research and prevention persuades many to believe that our government and affiliated organization’s are withholding a cure and advanced treatments for their own benefit. Many of these individuals struggle to realize why this conspiracy theory lacks practicality. Suppressing a cure for cancer would be impractical, not all organizations are in it for the money, Medical professionals and

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “We have guided missiles but misguided men.” This is the current state of the United States Congress when it comes to funding the National Institute of Health (NIH). We spend over half of a trillion dollars to protect ourselves from the extraordinary unlikelihood of a terrorist attack but only $32 billion on biomedical research that can indefinitely save millions of lives. It’s perplexing that we have been all the way to the moon and back but still have not the slightest idea of how to effectively treat diseases like cancer that ravage their way through our bodies. We are looking to protect ourselves from existential threats that are not nearly as great as they seem while every year more and more loved ones

Surgery. Radiation. Chemotherapy. Repeat. The treatments that are supposed to cure you bring you closer to the brink of death than you have ever been before. At the final stages, many people pray for death to relieve their suffering. This high tech form of torture should not be how it ends anyone. I watched my 79-year-old grandmother endure these treatments over the course of six months as she slowly slipped into the abyss that is death. By the end, she was no longer the same grandmother that would wake up early whenever we slept over to make us milkshakes and pancakes for breakfast, no longer the same grandmother that seemed to know everything there was to know. This is what people go through every day. Individuals, families, loved ones, they

How would one finish one’s life if he or she were only given six months to live? Brittany Maynard and Kara Tippetts answered this question in two very different ways. Both were too young to face death, but they could not escape their realities. Plagued by terminal cancer, they would suffer in a considerable amount of pain, ultimately ending in death. Maynard tried to lighten her experience by ending her life with medication to escape the full reality. News broadcasts and magazines highly publicized Maynard’s decision. On the other hand, Tippetts chose to live until her life naturally ended. However, her story was documented on the radio; in a book, The Hardest Peace; and her blog, “Mundane Faithfulness.” Although Maynard and Tippetts both suffered terminal cancer, they dealt with their circumstances, convictions, and choices differently.

During both 2007 and 2008, the number of cancer patients dying was a number that needed to be lowered in order to reach their goal of not having cancer be the number one cause in death. In 2007, around 559,650 Americans were expected to die of cancer. In 2008, 1,437,180 new cases of cancer were going to be diagnosed and 565,650 Americans would die from cancer. This means from 2007-2008 the number of deaths would increase by around 6000. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2007 and 2008 cancer accounted for 1 of every 4 deaths. With the statistics being so high, this could have led to the beginning of the Stand Up To Cancer movement.

It is said that three in five Americans will develop the horrible disease called cancer. Any living thing on this planet has the possibility of developing this uncontrollable disease. This includes scientists, medical doctors, regulators, owners of drug companies, along with their loved ones, meaning that they aren’t immune to cancer (“Big”). Many people in our society claim that the medical industry, along with the government, is keeping the cure to cancers suppressed. In figure 2 we see a perfect example of how society sees the scientists and doctors involved. This conspiracy has been around for quite some time and it’s mostly because some believe that the cancer war is just one big fraud (Michael Higgins). Such a conspiracy, is very

Why focus on treatment instead of finding a cure? It is simple; there is in profit in finding a cure for cancer. Desperate and eager to live, the typical cancer patient spends about $50,000 fighting the disease. Chemotherapy drugs are among the most expensive of all treatments, many ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 for a one-month supply. If the cancer industry allows a cure, then their patient base goes away (Dr. Mercola, D. (2011, January 1). Cancer: Forbidden Cures | Natural Cancer Treatment. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/03/natural-cancer-treatment.aspx.) It makes more

Cancer. We all know someone who has suffered from it or has passed away because of it. Cancer now affects one in every three people, and is the second highest cause of death in the United States. For decades, the medical community has been on the hunt for a cure for cancer, and have been subjected to intense ridicule from the public because of a lack of progression toward a possible cure. In recent years, many scientists, doctors, researchers, and the general public have come to believe that the cure for cancer is being suppressed because of this lack of progress. Those who say it is suppressed claim that the drugs used to treat cancer actually cause cancer, making a patient sicker and sicker. As a result, the patients are forced to spend

Times. http://www.nytimes.com.2008/02/19/world /americas/19iht-princeton.1.10175351.html Fitzsimmons, W. 2014. Time out or Burn out for the Next Generation. Retrieved from

- The prostate is a small gland about the size of a walnut at the base of the man’s bladder in front of the rectum. surrounding the urethra just below the bladder.