Did you know that Dr. Frederick Banting, the inventor of insulin, sold the patent for only $1?
Welcome back to my first blog post of the new school year! It’s still hard to believe I’m in grade 10! Our first project this year, was about why the world needs more Canada. We investigated the identity of Canada through discussions on current events, diversity, and Canadian literature.
We started this project by looking at the local news to learn about what’s going on in and around Canada. I chose to do some more research on the theft of the portrait of Winston Churchill from the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, that I heard of while watching The National. I presented the information that I found to a small group of my classmates, and we discussed details like how it took 8 months for people to even realize that it was stolen, and the fact that it was sold at an auction in Europe. It was very interesting to see how a missing piece of art can be such a big deal for so many people.
Another step that we took during this project was to analyze Canadian literature. We read some short stories including Tupelo, Totem, The Jade Peony, Meditations on a lake, and bread, to look at story elements like plot, setting, point of view, characters, conflict, theme, mood, and diction. I found this a bit challenging because the stories had hidden meanings within them. For example, Tupelo isn’t just a story about a crocodile under a bed. It’s a story about immigration, and acceptance.
By this point, we’ve finished the lead up learning and work, and we’re almost ready to start working on the final product of this project which is… Drumroll please… Making a podcast episode! Everyone chose a unique, individual topic to do their podcast on, and I chose diabetes care since it’s a topic that I have a lot of experience on, since I, myself have type 1 diabetes. But before we could actually make the podcast episodes, we had to do some research to figure out what to say, and then write a multi paragraph composition (Essay) about it. It took a while for me to write my multi paragraph composition, but it wasn’t too hard. I included information about aspects like Canada’s universal healthcare, Canada’s global impact on diabetics and diabetes care, and especially Dr. Frederick Banting’s generosity. Dr. Banting was a Canadian medical scientist who discovered insulin. He could’ve made a lot of money off of the discovery, but instead he decided to sell the patent for only 1$. He said he thought it would be unethical for someone to profit on a discovery that could save lives.
Did you know that Dr. Frederick Banting, the inventor of insulin, sold the patent for only $1? That’s an early example of a Canadian who put health over wealth. Unfortunately, despite Banting’s non profit motive, insulin has become very expensive because today, the three main insulin companies globally are for profit, and they continually raise their prices. Canada’s universal healthcare allows everyone to have access to the medical care and supplies they need. Diabetes is a very common chronic disease that affects around 9.4% of Canadians, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years. If you have diabetes, either your body can’t make insulin, or you body can’t use the insulin it makes. There are lots of supplies that people with diabetes need in their daily lives including insulin, insulin pens, needles, blood test kits, ketone test strips, blood glucose monitors, insulin pumps, and more. But without Banting’s discovery, people with diabetes wouldn’t even be able to survive. Banting’s selflessness impacted people with diabetes all over the world, and helped inspire Canada’s national healthcare system. Because Canadians believe in medical treatments over profit, over 3 million people in Canada have access to quality care and supplies to treat diabetes, and people around the world have access to insulin.
Canada’s universal healthcare allows Canadians to have access to diabetes medication when they need it, no matter their socioeconomic level or ethnicity. When Canadian Dr. Frederick Banting discovered insulin in 1921, he refused to put his name on the patent stating that he thought it would be unethical for someone to profit on a discovery that could save lives. He and his co-inventors sold the patent to the University of Toronto for $1 so that everyone who needed it would be able to afford it. Today, one year of insulin costs between $900 and $1700 depending on what type of insulin you use. Without universal healthcare, a person a with low income may need to choose between insulin and food. Currently in Canada, every province covers lifesaving insulin and at least basic diabetes supplies including insulin pens for all diabetics regardless of ethnicity and income. If the Pharmacare Bill (C-64) currently before the Senate comes into force, even more diabetic supplies will be covered for all Canadians.
The Canadian discovery of insulin and Canadian universal health care have changed how people see the diagnosis of diabetes. In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Bread”, she writes about how people see bread very differently depending on their life experiences. Before insulin was discovered, being diagnosed with diabetes meant you were likely to die within 6 months. Now it means you have a disease for the rest of your life, which is certainly unpleasant, but significantly better. Being diagnosed in Canada means being cared for through public healthcare. In other countries, it can mean facing significant medical costs on your own. For some families, the cost of treatment can result in poverty. Even just paying for the initial hospitalization could cost thousands of dollars in other countries. For researchers, Banting’s discovery inspired Canadian academics to see diabetes as an exciting opportunity for research. Researchers at the UBC Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) are conducting research for one of the world’s first genetically engineered cell replacement therapies for Type 1 Diabetes. This is a huge step toward a potential cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
The discovery of insulin in Canada helps hundreds of millions of people worldwide every day. Right from the beginning, as soon as insulin was discovered, Canada began sharing the medicine with many countries around the world. By 1925, Canada was exporting insulin to countries including Ireland, New Zealand, Japan, Venezuela, South Africa, Finland, Spain, and Russia. Canada remains committed to helping the world more equitably care for diabetes, but around half of diabetics worldwide don’t have access to insulin due to price and storage issues. Canadians are a part of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a charity that provides medical care to people around the world, specifically in war zones. One of their goals is to get people access to insulin and insulin pens. The Canadian government also partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to co-host a Global Diabetes Compact in 2021 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. The Compact aimed to reduce the risk of diabetes, and make sure everyone with diabetes worldwide has access to affordable diabetes treatments and care.
The world needs more Canada because Canadians believe in equitable access to healthcare, Canadians put health over wealth, and share knowledge with the world. The examples above about Banting’s discovery, Canada sharing knowledge, and Canada’s universal healthcare system shows this. When a cure for diabetes is discovered, do you think the inventor will be as generous as Banting was?
Before recording, editing, and finalizing the podcast, we had 1 more step. That was to make to intro music and cover art for the podcast. We looked at the cover arts and listened to the intro music of a few popular podcasts, and learnt how to use Garage Band to make our intro music. Everyone made their own cover art and intro music (Some people made more than one), and we had a class vote to decide which one we’d use. You can listen to my final podcast episode on Spotify here, and listen to everyone else’s here.
My answer to the driving question of this project, “Why does the World need more Canada?” is that the world needs more Canada because Canadians believe in health over wealth, and are working towards a better world. I enjoyed working on this project because it helped me to get more of an understanding about what’s going on in the world around us, close and far. Another reason I liked this project is because I got to choose my topic, and that helped me relate to my work, and it motivated me and helped me persevere. I think that helped make my work better as well.
Thank you for reading to the end of this blog post. Hopefully you enjoyed it! And keep an eye out, because I’ll have another post out soon!