Dr Preshaw responds
I thank Dr Jones for his comments on my letter about InspireHealth.
My weak attempt at satire cannot be compared with the essay published by Swift, titled “A modest proposal,” in which he famously made the absurd suggestion that poverty could be alleviated if poor families sold their children as food for the rich.
However, it is equally absurd for the Minister of Health, the Honourable Mike de Jong, to award $6 million in 2011 to encourage InspireHealth to expand its activities among cancer patients, when the extravagant claims made by its chairman for increased survival rates have never been substantiated.
It is also absurd to suggest that a logical extension of this award would be for Mr de Jong to promote InspireHealth’s therapy among cancer patients across Canada.
—R.M. Preshaw, MD
Salt Spring Island