Why There Will Never Be a Cure

This is a conversation that I had today at lunch. Now, some of you may agree and some of you will disagree, strongly. The discussion was brought up about the $100 million Obama is going to send to the care of Haiti. The question was posed to me, “Doesn’t that piss you off that they send $100 million to another country, and that money could be spent on diabetes research?” Now, I didn’t know how to answer this question at first. Of course I don’t want to see anybody have to suffer, but I also see the side that my tax money could go to something like research instead. So, my answer was, “well, there will never be a cure.”

And then the conversation went on with my explaining why, which I will here as well. And it can be summed it very easily. You think we are in a recession now? Find a cure to diabetes and see what kind of recession we hit. How would scientists that spent their whole life searching for a cure and doing studies about diabetes get a paycheck if there was a cure? How would they pay their bills. How would the stores they shop at be affected. How would the people that work for diabetes companies and products make a living? It would hit our economy harder than just about anything.

Do I hope for a cure, of course! Do I still donate funds and do volunteer work, of course. But realistically, no, I don’t think it is likely. There will be advancements in the management of it and there will be tools that may make it easier to live with diabetes and maybe even ways to rid yourself of all complications, but never a cure. Companies can still make money off of advancements, but not off of a cure.

But like I said before, this thought will not stop me from doing what I can to help find one.

Do any of you share this same feeling?