response to As Devastating Epidemics Increase, Nations Take OnDrug Companies

[decalvas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

[forwarding this to the list myself in case it wouldn't make it from the
unsubscribed one...E, these people take me on a learning curve that don't
ever quit...]

>From: "Eric Nielsen" <plato@xxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <decalvas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: response to As Devastating Epidemics Increase, Nations Take On
>Drug Companies
>Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 13:46:15 -0500
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>    re:  >From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
>>Subject: Intellectual  property and profiteering in the third world
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>>
>>NY  Times, July 9, 2000
>>
>>As Devastating Epidemics Increase, Nations  Take On Drug Companies
>>
>>By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
>   Speaking from the viewpoint of a population &  community ecologist &
>evolutionary biologist, this article seems to entirely  miss the fact that
>there are simply too many damned rats in the box, breeding  too quickly,
>using too many resources, etc etc & some sort of ecological
>(epidemiological?) crisis is an inevitable fact.  No matter how many
>decades worth of Pfizer Pfunding we would throw to improve 3rd world
>living  conditions -- and concomitantly, lifespans and reproductive
>capacities -- we are  still at the edge of an ecological abyss if we do
>not curtail growth and  reproduction!!   On the individual level, it
>certainly is an  altruistic urge to medicate underserved humans.  On the
>population level,  increasing lifespan & reproductive output only
>exacerbates the  condition.   I'm not trying to defend Pfizer, and I'm not
>advocating any functionally genocidal policies here.  I'm just pointing
>out  that the broad ecological context of this situation rather leaves us
>on the  horns of a dilemma.....  and that the original article entirely
>missed the  ecological depth of the situation.   cheers -- Eric
>