Post 5: Ponderings

With a combination from Death Note, my favorite manga and anime series at the moment, and my dream in life (though however impossible it may be, it is still my dream and goal!), I came up with a hypothetical situation where I would be in the control of many lives. This situation pertains to many recurring topics which we've had in English this first cycle.

I want to major in either chemistry or chemical engineering. Chemical engineering, from my understanding of it, can be used to create enzymes and that kind of thing, which has been used to control certain types of cancer with a single pill a day. The enzyme holds the cancer cell in place so that it is impossible for the cell to perform mitosis, which controls both the cell and the spread of the cell throughout the body (Note: this may be slightly off, I'm just reciting what I remember from a video in Biology last year).

So, my goal and dream is to create different enzymes to control different types of cancer. (Yes, now you probably understand when I previously mentioned that my goals and dreams were somewhat, if not completely unobtainable).

The reason why this relates to what we've been discussing in english, is because aside from possibly winning awards and grants offering somewhat substantial amounts of money, you would have a patent on the pills for 10-15 years, and would be able to extort it, by selling the pills for as high as you want, since you have a monopoly on the product and since anybody who had that certain type of cancer would pretty much be willing to pay any price to save their life. There are many poor people out there who have cancer. Jacking up the prices for those who don't have health insurance (which evidently is a major percentage of American and World citizens), would have to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for even a single bottle. This deals with the issue of if it is an obligation to help others who are in need: according to "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," you'd essentially be killing whoever could not pay for the drug you made, since you'd be denying people you'd fully be aware that were in need of the drug the drug, and eventually, their lives.

If you kept the price of the drug up, then you would make hundreds of millions of dollars, but would be killing hundreds of thousands of people. Now, being greedy, I would propose something like exploiting the drug, and then using all that money made from the drug and donating it to charities worldwide. However, most benefactors (in my opinion) donate to make themselves feel good: they donate to either get their name on a building or have conditions in which they themselves are recognized for that good deed. If the drug were exploited, and if much of the money WAS donated to charities, that would still not deny the fact that you'd be killing hundreds of thousands of people every year. So, what if you adjusted the price based on a person's need (that is, if you somehow got through thousands of applications for it)? You'd still make money on those with health insurance and rich people who could pay for the whole drug themselves. However, this would induce the sense of prejudicism against minorities and against rich people. It would also be naive and arrogant to think that I would be able to pass rightous judgement concerning people's lives.

I guess all that I've discovered from this debate with myself is that equality is impossible and that you cannot satify everybody. Would you be a rich killer, or a poor hero? I guess that'd be something to ponder if (and that's one of the biggest "if"s in the world) that day miraculously comes.