By: Anissa Berrouayel
The twenty-first century has offered a plethora of new and improved medical technology and revolutions. As healthcare advances, society is left to grow and focus on other issues while fostering an environment to allow even more advancements. The more information, treatments, and cures discovered, the better the lives of everyone as a whole for generations.
However, with each development comes a reaction from the public. An example of this was when immunologist James Allison suggested that his research on T cells and the immune system could lead to a new treatment for cancer patients. Biotechnology companies repeatedly shot him down and the public never truly saw his vision. Although people were skeptical, Allison continued to pioneer this new advancement and now his ideas have birthed some of the most successful cancer treatments out there.
How can doctors and scientists make strides to improve the healthcare of society when their ideas are rejected by the community? This past year serves as a remarkable example of that. Physicians and public officials continued to advocate for the use of face masks and quarantine in an attempt to help lower the spread of COVID-19 and to allow the rate of contracting the virus to decrease, especially for those at greater risk. However, regardless of their advice, people continued to go out in public without a face covering and put themselves and those around them in danger. It even went to the extreme in the United States when individuals took it upon themselves to protest these regulations and claimed that they were unconstitutional.
There are also touchy subjects in the medical community when it comes to how far healthcare should go. Ethical topics such as quality of life, genetic engineering, the altering of the human genome, physician-assisted suicide, abortions, organ donating, and even subjects that seem like science fiction like designer babies and cloning are fiercely debated throughout communities and some are simply deemed as blasphemous or unthinkable, immediately being rejected by society without a second thought.
This close-minded perspective can be extremely harmful to our way of life.It blocks future ingenuity and innovation solely because an idea seems outlandish and/or doesn't align with one’s personal beliefs. People’s ignorance, disregard, and the strange innate feeling that bad occurrences certainly couldn’t happen to oneself is the enemy of enhancing our world, especially in the medical field. The greatest disease against modern healthcare is the resistance and fear to new proposals that can aid those relying on the very same innovations that are being immediately rejected.
Resources:
Medical Breakthroughs that were Initially Ridiculed or Rejected: https://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/medical-breakthroughs#page=10
Masks Off! Protestors Claim Face Mask Order Unconstitutional: https://abc13.com/face-mask-order-protest-coronavirus-covid-19/6277878/
Current Ethical Issues in Healthcare: https://www.floridatechonline.com/blog/healthcare-management/current-ethical-issues-in-healthcare/
10 Controversial Medical Topics for a Research Paper: https://stpaulsafterschool.org/list-of-controversial-topics-for-a-medical-research-paper/