New treatment for ovarian cancer poses ecology dilemma

Taxol is a chemotherapeutic drug which has shown promising results in the treatment of ovarian cancer. The problem with Taxol is that it is produced from a resource that is being rapidly depleted. It is extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, a slow growing native of the Pacific north west. It takes an average of six, 100-year-old trees to treat each patient. This paper discusses the complex make up of this drug and the ethical dilemmas associated with its use.