Perhaps in recent weeks you have heard a lot about cancer oblivion, or, what amounts to the same thing, the right to be forgotten for cancer patients. We could define it as a right that others do not take into account that someone has suffered from cancer, whether it is to ask for a loan, buy a house, take out life insurance, or even access a job.
If it is already hard to suffer or have suffered from this disease, imagine how unfair and painful it is not being able to access, for example, a loan to buy a house once that you are already cured or in the process of healing. It must be remembered that the European Parliament included this right in one of its 2022 resolutions, but Spain has not yet adopted it, despite the fact that other neighboring countries have.
All European countries will have to guarantee the right to be forgotten oncology before 2025. Esestablishes a guide for action for EU member countries: Parliament considers that insurers and banks should not take into account the medical history of people affected by cancer and calls for national legislation to guarantee that survivors are not discriminated against in comparison with other consumers.
In Weekend Morning We wanted to know some of the testimonies of these patients, who claim that forgetfulness. Antonia, she overcame leukemia 30 years ago and told COPE “we wanted to become a mutual, but they advised me not to with the problems that I had had because many things did not fit in and they would hinder me and they encouraged me not to” explained.
A discrimination that affects the youngest
Parliament sets that limit in 2025 so that national laws include the right to be forgotten, what exactly would this law consist of? Clara Rosas, manager of the Catalan Federation of Entities Against Cancer, explains it to us. “For an adult, 10 years after having overcome cancerit is requested that the fact of having cancer be deleted from your medical history, because the insurers look at the risk, which is the same after ten years that you and I can have” he explained.
This discrimination affects many people who have suffered from cancer in their youth, according to the Spanish Federation of Parents of Children with Cancer. As Pilar Flores, the Spanish Federation of Parents of Children with Cancer, tells us, who “59% have taken out insurance, but 28% have omitted that they have a history of cancer.”
- Left6: There is no advertising configuration for the requested slot
From this Federation, they are working on the collection of data on discrimination of people with a history of cancer, with the aim of coming up with an effective law on the right to be forgotten oncology that put an end to the discrimination they suffer daily from entities.
According to data from the Cancer Observatory, it is estimated that 21.6 million people will have this disease in 2030, but after these figures it must be said that cancer is cured and each time, thanks to research, the survival rate is higher. Survival of cancer patients in Spain has been increasing over the years. Estimates suggest that in the last 4 decades it has doubled and, although slowly, it is expected to continue increasing.
Specifically, between 2008 and 2013 survival among patients under 75 years of age is 4.5 points higher than in the period between 2002 and 2007. Taking into account the net survival standardized by age, in men it was 90% in prostate and testicular tumors and of 86% in the thyroid. In the case of women, breast cancer thyroid gland is the one that achieves the highest survival rates, with 93%he 89% cutaneous melanomaand breast cancer 86%.
