The Medical Innovation Bill will surely serve to stimulate innovative ideas on medicine and healing, facilitate paradigm shifts and consequently broaden the horizons of the field. It should, therefore, be received with enthusiasm,” says adv Anton Alberts, chairperson of the FF Plus.
Adv Alberts says that he previously touched on the lack of medical research in certain fields during a parliamentary debate on the issue, but thus far the issue has been tiptoed around seeing as it was taboo in addition to the fact that it seemed to offer no real financial benefits.
“In numerous cases, informal testimonies point out the value of a specific remedy, but because there is very little or no research to back up the claims, they are either ignored or worse still, discounted as quackery.
“This only serves to limit medical innovation and as a result we remain stuck in the paradigm prescribed by the pharmaceutical giants of the world. This by no means implies that the pharmaceutical industry does not offer viable medical solutions, but their frame of reference does not have all the answers.
“We must be brave enough to challenge and break down these paradigms. This is the path paved by a former member of parliament, the now deceased Mario Oriani-Ambrosini.
“This Bill adds credibility to the mantra that the ‘the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence’.
“When it comes to science, we should not be intimidated by governmental or corporate agendas that prescribe what research should and should not be done, especially when people’s quality of life, or even more importantly, their lives, are at stake.
“We are, therefore, of the opinion that this Bill will help us take a few steps in the right direction and that it will facilitate research that would not have been done otherwise.
“The Bill also confirms that individuals have the autonomy to decide which medicinal interventions they want to go along with, especially when it comes to the treatment of pain and the possibility of saving someone’s life. We should be grateful for what Oriani-Ambrosini has done,” says adv Alberts.
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