I was born with a rare genetic disease called Fanconi anemia (FA), which kills too many people far too young. The life expectancy when I was growing up in the 1990s was 22. With FA, your bone marrow fails, and your body can’t produce new blood cells in order to keep you alive. A bone marrow transplant can give you a new chance at life, but it doesn’t eliminate all the life-limiting risks associated with the disease.
In 2001, I became the first person in Ireland to undergo a new type of bone marrow transplant involving the immunosuppressant drug fludarabine. I was 16 years old. My early years living with low life expectancy—and being saved by modern technology and medical science—gave me a lifelong interest in how we extend life expectancy more broadly, and in innovation.
Innovation is the fuel that powers new medicines that save lives, and new technologies that make all of our lives better. Unfortunately, today, politicians on both the left and right are more interested in restricting and controlling innovation than in encouraging its potential.
Read my full article at the Foundation for Economic Education.
