Comments on: The Mater Hospital and cancer drugs

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:03:33 +0000

Did somebody in that hospital board even think about if a woman with cancer should even get pregnant?? But Catholics might be of the opinion that she should have no sex at all. Catholic logic.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:58:40 +0000

I’d have to agree with the “Catholic logic” on that one.

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:00:07 +0000

Also of note, being a health-care professional, you would be suprised at how many….”below-average” intelligence people there are walking around this world. And yes some of them have cancer and are receiving dangers drug therapy and given the opportunity they would indeed have sex without giving a single thought as to what might happen if they were to get pregnant- Realist logic. HAHAHA. Take care guys

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:56:34 +0000

In response to Cordula….None of these chemo drugs, old or new, are “miracle life-saving drugs” not at all. The fact of the matter is that one might experience a few months, at best, added to their lifespan to see friends and family that they might otherwise not have. Cancer is such a ravaging disease state that the clinical trials of these drugs are considered clinically and statistically significant if the increase life by 2-3 months, and that is approved by the FDA not the drug company. Furthermore, most and I emphasize MOST patients are willing to pay the extra bucks for those precious few months and for the possibility of up to a year, which has been experienced by multiple patients. The average price per Quality Adjusted Life Year(QALY) associated with chemotherapy agents is about $20,000 and that is within the acceptable range for most countries.

By: Cordula

Cordula — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 07:59:45 +0000

Dear Tony,

unfortunately Tarceva is not a miracle life-saving drug – not at all. It just prolongs life for a few months. So if a woman would want to include sex into her last months contraception would be inevitable.
If the call for abstinence in this case is humanistic is a matter of oneÂ´s personal view. It might be for some, but for others not. And catholic nuns and priests are definitely not experts in this issue ;-))

By: Tony Allwright

Tony Allwright — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 06:59:23 +0000

Wouldn’t a woman with cancer, offered a miracle life-saving cure that might however thalidomise her baby, want to be stark raving mad to even think about getting pregnant until her treatment was over? Abstinence is the only 100% sure guarantee of remaining unpregnant. This is not Catholic logic, it’s human – and indeed humanistic – logic.

By: Cordula

Cordula — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 08:37:12 +0000

Did somebody in that hospital board even think about if a woman with cancer should even get pregnant?? But Catholics might be of the opinion that she should have no sex at all. Catholic logic.

By: Tony Allwright

Tony Allwright — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:45:44 +0000

This situation is simply the result of the sloppy agreement entered into by the Irish Government when it decided to fund Catholic hospitals such as the Mater. If it wanted a secular ethos it should have made this a condition of funding. If the nuns and priest didn’t like that, the Govt should have buggered off and built its own damn hospitals instead of piggybacking on the Catholic ones.

But the agreement is that the Catholic ethos rules. Get over it or go somewhere else.