Stigma and the (un)deserving sick

I had lung cancer.

And every time I talk about my cancer, I find myself explaining that the carcinoid cancer I experienced is a very rare lung cancer, one that strikes at random, one that has no known risk factors. In other words, a lung cancer that is not associated with smoking. Occasionally, people ask me if I smoke. Sometimes I just say no; sometimes I explain that I smoked some in high school and college but quit almost thirty years before my carcinoid tum[image error]or was discovered. This is what...