Medical Tourism vs. Biotech Pilgrims

     For my “extra” reading for this week, I read Ara Wilson’s “Medical Tourism in Thailand.” I found this article to be a very interesting contrast to Professor Song’s “Biotech Pilgrims and the Transnational Quest for Stem Cell Cures,” because the two articles approach a similar topic very differently. Not only does Song purpose a new way of looking at and analyzing medical tourism than Wilson, but also the scope of the two projects were very different. Song focused on individuals. Several patients are named and their personal journeys for a cure abroad are presented in the article. Wilson, on the other hand, looks the broader system of medical tourism - its origin, how it functions, and how it benefits the economy and country. Examples of different procedures a patient may come to Thailand to pursue are discussed, but no individual patients are ever described to the readers. I think it was helpful to have both perspectives to gain insight into how a system such as the one in Thailand came into existence and to hear individual stories as to why a person may want to partake in a system such as the one in Thailand or China.

     Through the descriptions of real people, Song presents the concept of biotech pilgrimage to more accurately describe why people may travel to another country for treatment. In the cases of the people she presents, it should be labeled a pilgrimage because spirituality and the hope for a cure abroad is at the core of the travels. People decided to travel because they were out of options at home and wanted to pursue that small chance of a cure somewhere else; they are hoping to return home changed, which is the definition of a pilgrimage. However, in Wilson’s article, I felt like the reasons for medical tourism focused more on economical reasons. While Wilson did discuss how some people may go to Thailand to get sex reassignment surgery or have the procedure to select the sex of the baby before in vitro implantation, it appeared she was saying the majority of people go to Thailand for medical care because it is cheaper. Wilson describes how the hospital, Bumrungrad International, truly is run as a business, with rebranding and marketing strategies, such as calling themselves “international” to establish the expertise of their hospital and marketing to people to use their services. I found it fascinating that they partnered with airlines and touring companies to create medical tourism packages. I also found it interesting that after 9/11, they saw people in the Middle East not wanting to travel to the US for medical care, so Bumrungrad made changes in their hospital to cater to those people who needed to be served.

      Whether people partake in traveling abroad for medical care for economic reasons or for more spiritual reasons, I like Song’s concept of labeling it a biotech pilgrimage. I think any journey encompassing travel abroad for medical care, even if motivated solely for economic reasons, has the “aspects of pilgrimage—faith, travel, and a sense of higher purpose,” like Song described (387). Most people aren’t just traveling for routine medical care, there are other reasons motivating them to travel abroad for that and I think the phrase biotech pilgrimage can better capture the reality of traveling abroad for medical care.