The author starts out by explaining the Pacific yew tree. It is a conifer found only on the west coast, from southern Alaska to central California and in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. This tree has never had much value, in the past it was harvested by accident and then wasted. Now, it has been found that the bark from this tree has a certain chemical extract in it that can cure ovarian cancer. So far, 30% of patients treated with the drug, "Taxol", have shown a significant response. The only problem with

this experiment is that it takes the bark from 3 trees to make enough taxol to treat one patient. This puts the environmental agencies up in arms. They believe that it may endanger the Pacific yew tree. Christensen on the other hand, having been diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago, believes this is ridiculous. She believes that the amount of women who die every year from ovarian and breast cancer deserve a chance to live, and if it takes killing trees, then so be it. Christensen says that she has been accepted for an experimental taxol treatment at the National Cancer institute, but she is lucky. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of women will die before this drug may ever be released. So the question stands, what is more important, a tree or a human life?

Overall, I think that this essay worked because of the sympathy that the reader feels for the

Some common words found in the essay are:
National Cancer, Idaho Montana, Thane Christensen, ovarian cancer, women die, women die ovarian, , pacific yew tree, tree worth life, pacific yew, die ovarian, yew tree, breast cancer, worth life, tree worth,
Approximate Word count = 587
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)