Perspectives

Imagine being reluctant to go anywhere for fear of embarrassment at what your body might do. But your family needs food, so you put on a brave face and go to the shop down the road. You’ve been walking around the supermarket for ten minutes, enjoying browsing the special offers, when it begins: the feeling of warm dampness between your legs, gradually spreading downwards. You glance at the wet patch steadily growing across the front of your jeans. It’s happened again: another outing is ruined. You take off your jacket and tie it round your waist in an attempt to hide what’s going on.

Starting Clinical School at a university like Cambridge, where the insides of a hospital are often unfamiliar to medical undergraduates, is a daunting and exciting process. A few months in, I am beginning to wonder if seeing pain and suffering on a daily basis has changed me more than I had imagined it would. Am I beginning to see someone I barely know as an obese smoker rather than a mother or sister? An alcoholic rather than a man in terrible pain? In short, am I becoming more cynical?

The study of rare diseases is incredibly common in scientific research. Scientists justify this by claiming that understanding these rare conditions can provide insight into common disorders.

However, since funding is limited and must be prioritized, is this really the case? Or are researchers simply stating this on grant applications to obtain funding in order to satisfy their own intellectual interests? In short, what are the arguments for and against the study of rare diseases?