The Consequences of Failed Progress
From EurekAlert!: "The number of individuals with Parkinson's disease in 15 of the world's largest nations will double over the next generation ... While the number of individuals with the disease will nearly double in the United States to 610,000, the greatest growth will occur in developing countries in Asia. By 2030, an estimated 5 million people in China will have the disease." This, it should be taken as read, is a picture of a future in which medical science does not advance as rapidly as it might - in which the relentless advance of biotechnology and the engines of commercialization fail to churn out effective therapies that rapidly decrease in cost while increasing in availability and effectiveness. Parkinson's disease is just one of many failure modes of age-damaged cells and biochemistry in the nervous system and brain; if we are to do our very best to save as many lives as possible from age-related suffering, frailty and death, we must work hard indeed to support the best and most effective research and remove roadblocks to the development of therapies.
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/uorm-wpc012907.php