Studying tuberculosis in India, I saw the problem with cures

For cancer patients, the best-case scenario after undergoing gruelling radiation and chemotherapy treatments is to be told that they’re in remission, that things look good, but they might not stay that way. When we talk about remission, we leave open the possibility of relapse. We calibrate our expectations with a bit of caution; we might even expect that the cancer will return (even if we hope it might not).

What many call ‘cancer culture’ is underpinned by this hope, that cure might be just around the corner. This is why so many of us raise money by running marathons for the cure, saving yogurt tops, and buying consumer products neatly tied up in pink ribbons. In focusing our attention – and a lot of time and money – on this search for a cure, we risk ignoring the social and environmental causes that lead to cancer in the first place. For example: is it better to buy a car from a dealership that donates some of its proceeds to cancer research, or should we instead invest in green infrastructure and transportation that reduce the levels of carcinogenic emissions into the air we breathe? We might think of this as a form of what scholars call a moral hazard: that in directing our attention toward cures, we’re actively discouraged from addressing the fundamental causes of the problem.

What, exactly, is a cure? We tend to assume that cure is an ending: the end of feeling ill, the end of disease, defect or difference, and, most crucially, the end of treatment. At first glance, this makes a lot of sense. Who hasn’t been laid out by a cold and wished for a quick fix so they could get back to their regularly scheduled lives? For those of us grappling with chronic health conditions, the idea that we could stop taking our daily pills, that we could just be better, is a dream. And isn’t that a dream worth having?

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