The letter by Dr. V. Shanta, chairperson of the Cancer Institute (May 15), on Barack Obama's reference to cancer in the context of terrorism is welcome. Lack of sensitivity and the inability to appreciate the impact of reckless usage of expressions cause irreparable damage to many. Social and other stigmas have already caused enough damage to cancer patients. Even their caregivers need counselling to ensure the recovery of patients. Therefore, people in general and in authority should exercise caution while making comments comparing cancer to human activities.
P.S. Sundaram,
Chennai
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I fully endorse Dr. Shanta's views. Cancer is curable, preventable and possible to live with while terrorism is brutal, cruel, and a fatal manmade disease. As she rightly says, unnecessary remarks on cancer can demoralise patients undergoing treatment. My son had cancer when he was a student. He lived for four years after being diagnosed and worked in a software firm for six months. What he told his boss was “my positive feature is my confidence, that I can live with my cancer. But my negative feature is the threat of people.”
A.J. Rangarajan,
Chennai
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Cancer is a perfect metaphor for the home-grown terrorism ailing Pakistan. The two conditions share much in common: they are malignant, they arise from within and, if unchecked, they proliferate and destroy the host. Prevention is better than cure in both cases. It is expensive, painful and difficult to cure both conditions in the late stages. Calling a man a “shark” neither implies fins nor hampers the efforts to conserve an endangered species.
M. Rajiv,
Hyderabad
