How many roads...?

Two pieces of news preoccupy me today, and I find my thoughts returning to them no matter what I am doing. The news of Angelina Jolie’s elective double mastectomy is all over the place. As a woman and as a human being, I admire her decision to opt for surgery, and applaud her public advocacy of her choice by writing about it the New York Times. Although, ever since I heard the news I could not stop marvelling how extraordinarily privileged a woman needs to be to exercise this choice. Even if a woman can tide over social perceptions of femininity obsessed with body parts, this is both a financially and racially privileged choice to make at this moment. Such diagnosis is not accessible for even the vast majority of women who have the luxury of health insurance, in any country in the world. I have been keenly following the recent debate in India about the Novartis patent on Glivec, and am more than glad about the eventual outcome. The Indian Supreme Court’s ruling should go a long way in keeping cancer medications affordable in India, which would also benefit people from neighbouring countries who go there for cancer treatment. The importance of the affordability of medicines anywhere in the world cannot be overstated. Many African countries and charities depend on cheaper versions of drugs made in India to combat diseases including AIDS.

In the afternoon, I am somewhat relieved to find that Joseph Stiglitz has voiced his concern about how not just the tests for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes but the isolated DNA sequences are owned by a corporation, which means that not only does the corporation want to exercise monopoly on diagnosis, but it also wants to own all related research, and at a time when the implications of genetic mutation for Asian American, Latino and African-American women is not known. The report I have seen is very obviously written from an American perspective. So I do not know if 'Asian' is covered by 'Asian American'. How about Australasians, Polynesians, indigenous peoples who have had no human contact outside their community or tribe? Anyway, what a ridiculous idea, that a corporation might own the DNA sequences, things that occur naturally! Hopefully the war against proprietorship has started, but then there’s a long way to go. How many roads…?

Now for the other thing that has preoccupied me. I will write about it in the next post.