A lawyer's perspective

Use this forum to discuss the January 2019 Book of the month "Winning the War on Cancer" by Sylvie Beljanski
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flaming_quills
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Re: A lawyer's perspective

Post by flaming_quills »

As a law major I get excited when I see anything to do with law in a book but I genuinely think Sylvie's perspective enhanced the book because nothing happens in a vaccum and there's all sorts of circumstances surrounding even the most trivial of things. So it was definitely good to see the legal angle of the discovery of an all-natural cure for cancer.
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Post by Juliana_Isabella »

I think the lawyer's perspective is a refreshing take on this subject. Often, books about pharmaceuticals are written by doctors or people in the industry. I'm aware that everyone has something to gain, but she may be less (or differently) biased because of her different perspective.
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Post by Brandy C »

I think the legal aspect was needed. The perspective of a lawyer validated the research. Being a lawyer, she knew how to argue the case. A legal stance is needed to take on ”big pharma” and insurance companies. The average person would not know the exact course to take. Displaying the evidence from both sides added to the validity of the story.
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Post by Juliet+1 »

I think the legal perspective definitely enhanced the book. Any substance presented as a "cure" has to go through a long and expensive process, and the assumption is that the substance is artificial. Natural cures are left out of the process. This book surfaces a lot of those issues.
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Post by Felicity Granger »

The judicial system is always inextricably linked to historical events - the story is always told through the eyes of the victor and held in the hearts of those involved. Medicine seems to have two diverse factions eternally at war with each other in regards to which is better and safer. It's understandable that not every practice can be okayed as the effects may not be completely understood or accepted. Distributing any and every thing in the name of medicine would have disastrous effects on any group of people and thus the requirement for a set of standards is implemented. Both sides are gonna have differing opinions, so a legal presence to help mediate is necessary. Seeing it from the legal perspective is helpful in this case.
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Post by readerrihana »

I think it helps to bring in the legal perspective. Legalities are also important to know, for example, what are the laws around selling and distributing medicine and using it, and what are people's rights to know their effects.

I think in reality it is important to know all such things.
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Post by Jajachris »

The legal perspective gave the book some credible depth. It is true that both governments and pharmaceutical companies discredit the works of traditional or alternative medicine not because they have the interests of people at heart, but because of their selfish interests to make money from health sector.
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Post by Barbara Larkin »

Lawyers can convince you to do anything sometimes. But really, if everyone with access to a lab synthesized a drug for private public consumption, there's the issue of patenting, plus a host of other things that would require a legal background.
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Post by car-mbz »

The legal perspective enhanced the story. It enabled us readers understand more why her dad was arrested and persecuted.
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Post by Agbata precious »

Yes, we need perspective when we are looking for a natural cure for cancer.
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Post by Charles lib »

briellejee wrote: 09 Jan 2019, 07:03 The voice of a lawyer did enhance the book from a political perspective. Since these big companies are, with no doubt, in it for the money and greed, I think it enlightened people who are unaware of this powerplay in the medical field. However, the eye of a lawyer is different than that of a scientist and doctor. It is clear in the book that the author wanted to expose these companies in an attempt also to prove her father's research. And although her father's work is indeed promising, I still use the benefit of the doubt since she sees it in a perspective of a lawyer. It is like when someone works at an insurance company versus a doctor in a car wreck scene. The insurance guy will see the car first but the doctor will ask about the people in it. Habits are difficult to drop. :tiphat:
Good point.
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Post by Fentymak »

Her father is qualified to talk about natural medecine. She herself is not. She's a lawyer and tries to use the law to fight for her father's legacy.
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Post by Micheal Ukewuihe »

Yh the new perspective introduced by the lawyer made it even more convincing that this has deep roots and proofs
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Post by Nathaniel Sarah »

It definitely improved the book, in my opinion. A book becomes much more interesting when it offers a fresh perspective on something.
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Post by Mercylib »

The legal perspective of the narrative did enhance the book overall. I also think that perspective was needed. Sylvie didn't have to come up with extracts that solved the problem - her father did that - but she did need to prove the validity of those extracts in the treatment of cancer. This is where her legal perspective helped her cause.
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