This past Saturday I was an ‘adjudicator’ at the International Debate Tournament held on campus. It was organized by Ian Lising, the Instructor of debate and speech with the help of members of the debate team.
An adjudicator judges the debate along with a panel of other adjudicators. I judged four rounds, taking furious notes on each 5-minute speech. By the time the fourth round came around I was tired of hearing debates.Upon hearing the topic of one debate, I became more interested. The resolution was, ” This house would eliminate pharmaceutical patents.” It refers to the patents that exist which make life-saving drugs inaccessible to people who need them. These patents give companies the right to monopolize the drugs and to sell them for as much money as they want.
The debate I saw that night was amazing. The two teams who argued in favor of the resolution were ULV students Travis Raymond, Kim Reed, Juan Garcia and Melissa Galaviz. They gave powerful speeches, expressing their ideas with clarity, strength, compassion and intelligence. Their main arguments were that patents benefit companies, rather than the majority of people who need the drugs, all for the sake of profit.
One argument stated that privatized health care is illogical because it mainly allows the rich who can the afford the drugs to buy them. The opposition argument that drug companies would stop researching to find cures if there wasn’t a profit incentive was refuted by ULV. The debaters argued that companies have the money to decrease prices and make drugs more accessible because people in the U.S. have a better chance of gaining access to drugs and treatment.
Another solution offered was that expanding the market for these drugs would decrease prices for all consumers. They used the example of how many European nations provide universal health care for all people, and curing diseases is not about profit.
Another example used was how the World Trade Organization sued Brazil for producing the AIDS cocktail drug for its people. It was decided almost unanimously that the ULV teams won the round.
While the solutions offered in the debate are not flawless and will not magically solve these problems, however, they are a significant step in the right direction. The power that these students held that night was great.
Maybe someday, they can use their debating skills, knowledge and passion to improve the world and save lives by perhaps reforming current U.S. patent laws so that monopolies are not forever held by companies. Maybe they could become international lawyers or run for office to reform current WTO laws to make free trade also fair.
They could influence public opinion by writing books and articles. They could inspire young people and become professors or influence multi-national companies to make fair decisions. All I know is that they truly motivated me.
Good luck to the students mentioned above, who will join Jessica Lord, Andrew Kim, Beverly Samano, Nathan Baca, Sean Krispinsky and Jennifer Contreras to represent ULV in the 2002 World’s Debate Tournament in Canada this December.
And on an important side note, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently met with leading drug-industry officials who seemed open to the idea of making drugs more accessible to people who cannot afford them.
Anna Roy, a senior international studies major, is assistant features editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at roya@ulv.edu.
