You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Governments should spend more money on medical research for people’s health and less on researching the environment. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge. Write at least 250 words.

It is suggested that state should spent more money on medical research than environmental research. It seems to me that research on both fields is equally beneficial and therefore, money should be spent on both areas with equal importance.

If money is spent on medical research, people would get an improved health status and can enhance their quality of life. To be precise, when more money is spent on researches such as finding out various diagnostic procedures, investigations and development of vaccines, people will naturally have less morbid problems. For example, a CT scan or an MRI scan assists doctors to diagnose any structural abnormalities in the body. Similarly, Hepatitis B vaccine has prevented the occurrence of the disease in a sizeable proportion of people. Finally, research on developing new drugs for the treatment of cancer and other serious viral infections is very much needed in the present scenario and of course a lot of money is needed for this.

On the other hand, spending money on environment can ensure an ideal and safe living condition for people. To be clearer, if a person lives in a hostile environment, with polluted air and water, he is expected to have more serious issues in his life other than the health issues. For example, instead of finding an effective vaccine for malaria, it is better to avoid the breeding of mosquitoes in the living environment. Similarly, spending money on cultivation of organic crops and vegetables is more effective than spending exorbitant sums on the treatment of cancer. Therefore, it is justifiable to spent on the basic problem, which may lead to the secondary problem.

To conclude, it is clear that environmental problems are closely related to health problems, and therefore research on both these areas is inevitable and equally important rather than focusing more on one area.