Laetrile and Cancer

“Laetril.  Phony medication made from apricot pits.  Outlawed three years ago.  Illegal.”  (Chapter 2, Page 24, Panel 4).

Laetril (correctly spelled Laetrile) is an alternative medicine used to treat cancer.  It is a compound that contains a chemical, amygdalin, which is  found in the pits of many fruits, such as apricots, as Rorschach mentions here.  Amygdalin was first isolated in 1830, and first used to treat cancer in Russia as early as 1845.  Laetrile is a partly synthetic version of amygdalin that was patented in the United States in the 1950s.  Laetrile’s relevance to Watchmen takes several forms.  The first connection is to the time period that Laetrile became popular:  the 1970s.  Watchmen takes place during the 80s, just after the 70s when Laetrile gained popularity.  By 1978 an estimated 70,000 people had reportedly been treated with Laetrile.  The second form of relevance is to the motif of cancer.  Moloch’s mention of cancer is one of the first in the novel; later in the novel it is learned that cancer is Veidt’s method of removing his past acquaintances so they cannot prevent him from his task of saving humanity.  Moore uses the drug Laetrile, because it actually exists so that readers familiar with the time period of Watchmen might have knowledge about the drug.  This gives the readers a greater sense of the reality of the novel, so they are more likely to believe that the events in Watchmen could truly take place.

Works Cited:  "Laetrile/Amygdalin." National Cancer Institute. U.S. National Institutes of Health. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/laetrile/Patient/page2.

Image Credit:  http://www.cytopharma.com/