When Will We Finally Be Free From Suffering?

What pushed me to write this post was the death of a good friend of mine. She was only 36 years old, and she died of cancer today. For most of that time, doctors kept misdiagnosing her. She spent two months in the hospital suffering, and the only mercy was that she died peacefully in her sleep. When will progress finally allow us, as human beings, to stop being afraid and stop treating serious diagnoses like death sentences? The rich and powerful, the great and mighty, those at the very top, can afford the best specialists and the highest standard of care. They can afford healthcare where they are not simply turned away, where they do not have to wait years for life-saving procedures. They have plenty of time, unlike ordinary people. Unlike people like us. People who tremble at the thought of losing their jobs while unemployment keeps rearing its head, yet still have to scrape by on the bare minimum, living in fear. What about homeless people who have fallen into a vicious cycle with no way out? What about people living under the shadow of genetic diseases that are simply waiting to manifest, while there are still no treatments for them? They do not have time. We are still living in the Middle Ages, where unimaginable suffering is part of everyday life. How many people will die before we finally emerge from it? I don’t expect technological progress to give everyone a life in paradise. But for God's sake, we deserve at least a life in which we do not have to tremble at the thought of tomorrow.