ABSTRACT
The highest rates of breast cancer are found in the industrialized nations of North America and northern Europe, and the lowest are in Asia and Africa. Disability issues and breast cancer have at least one political dimension in common. A woman with breast cancer lists the lessons of her illness, her “treasures that prevail”: to accept the reality of her limits and imperfections, to face her fear, to fulfill her own need for nurturance. People who move to industrialized countries from countries with low breast-cancer rates soon develop the higher rates of the industrialized country. Studies have identified the presence of dozens of synthetic chemicals in women’s breast milk. Indeed, the modern breast has been characterized as a “toxic waste site.” Death from breast cancer—afflicting young women in their prime of life, middle-aged women with families, active grandmothers—is always a personal tragedy.
