Withholding the Cure: Difference between revisions

Compare and contrast [[Manufacturing Victims]], which involves therapists keeping their patients in therapy. Then there's withholding medication to keep people in therapy, or withholding therapy to keep people on medication, both of which can be [[Truth in Television]]: In [[Real Life]], some people need medication, some need therapy, some need a combination of both, and many need neither.

 

 

For [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|simplicity's sake]], no [[Real Life]] examples unless you have documentation, aside from media reports on people's perceptions.

 

== Anime&Manga ==

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* There was an episode of ''[[Barney Miller]]'' where the perp was a research scientist who had destroyed the property of his former employers because they refused to let him research the cure for [some disease] on the grounds that it wasn't fatal and there were too few sufferers for a cure to be profitable. Barney managed to talk his former boss into dropping charges and rehiring the guy, partly with the argument that by the time the cure was developed there may be an epidemic, "with any luck."

* Played with in an episode of ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]''. A race contracted a plague and believes they need continued treatments provided by another race to stay alive. Dr. Crusher, however, discovers that the plague has been cured, and it's only the withdrawal symptoms of the treatment that make them think they still need it. The other race are very aware of this and continue to exploit them, as their economy depends on it. While the [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|Prime Directive]] forbids [[The Captain|Picard]] from revealing the truth to the wronged race, he finds a way to correct the situation by refusing repairs to their few remaining ships. Without the ships, they will have no way to get the cure and will eventually realize they're not actually sick.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** Specifically, when the study started, it involved treating syphilis with an expensive and not very effective treatment. When the funding got reduced, they couldn't afford the treatment. Instead, they just continued to study the patients, while telling the patients they were being treated, so they could study the progression of the disease. Then, during the course of the study, a cheap and effective cure became available, but the doctors in charge realized that curing the patients would put an end to their research.

* Every time there is a new disease of any type, a lot of people seem to think this is in effect.

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Withholding The Cure]]