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Ltryptophan's avatar

Can any diseases be cured but the cure is too expensive?

Asked by Ltryptophan (12091points) April 2nd, 2011

If you had unlimited funding and political power could you cure one person of a terminal illness that is known to be incurable?

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11 Answers

blueiiznh's avatar

No.
That concept or power and money only works in the justice system, not in the medical community.

creative1's avatar

No I don’t belive that is true, there is nothing that would have saved my friend from the cancer that ate through his body. Frankly they just didn’t know enough about his type of cancer, if they saw 15 cases in a year in the usa it was a lot so I am positive that even if he had all the money all the money in the world to spend for a cure they still would not have had a cure considering he was dead within 3 years of being diagnoised with the cancer.

blueiiznh's avatar

And as @creative1 states, cancer is sadly one example that shows this concept does not work in the medical world.

faye's avatar

Do you think any rich politicians would die then? Some things money can’t buy.

FireMadeFlesh's avatar

No. Research into medical conditions, while dependent on funding, are not conducted with any thought of the cost of implementing what may be discovered. If research uncovered a treatment, financially minded people would find a way of making it viable.

Some countries also have state-funded health, where the government pays for all medical expenses, but yet they can’t cure any more diseases than countries who don’t have that system.

Garebo's avatar

I think that there are incurable diseases that can not be cured with money, maybe only by a miracle-genetic conditions and viral.
At the same time I am convinced that many “expensive” diseases can be treated very, very cheaply. Dr. Johanna Budwig, a German biochemist did some amazing things, a lot of which is up in the air as to the outcome, but there has been substantiated reports that are quite compelling. I think she is amongst the many that have been, and will continue to be thrown under the bus.

john65pennington's avatar

No. Cancer is a good example. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent seeking a cure for cancer and so far, not one single cure for all forms of cancer, has been discovered.

gailcalled's avatar

Look at the well-known and very wealthy actors who have died of cancer recently. Patrick Swayze and Farrah Fawcett come to mind, but I know that there are many more. Fawcett practically bought a clinic in Switzerland that purportedly had better-than-average success with her cancer (which I believe was rectal cancer.)

Look at Steve Jobs who is also putting up a valiant fight. Money is certainly no object there; he has already had a liver transplant. (Did he jump the queue? I have no way of knowing.)

skfinkel's avatar

No. There are diseases that medicine and all the money in the world can’t cure. Enjoy the health you have today, and understand that we all die sometime, even the rich and powerful.

AllAboutWaiting's avatar

A suitable cure should also be tolerable to the patient. The damage done by the disease and removal of can take useful time away. Just another example of the complexity of it. I wish money could be the only problem. There are conspiracy theories too, claiming the cure is there but the money earned to treat the ill is greater. Maybe that’s a good question too.

mattbrowne's avatar

No. A good example a certain genetic diseases. We don’t know how to replace the responsible DNA segments in 50 trillion cells of the human body for example. Not yet.

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