It is not the first time the public has been moved to tears by the sad story of helpless parents that have been plunged into destitution after paying huge medical fees to pay for treatment for their child. Nor will it be the last.

Gu Xin, a 22-year-old graduate, wrote a letter before his life was cruelly cut short by leukaemia at the end of last month.

The letter expressing great concern for his parents was posted on the Internet by the young man's grieving friends.

The document was entitled "Who will help my parents?" Gu wrote of how he did not regret leading such a short life and how he felt deeply indebted to his parents. He worried about how his mum and dad would manage to go on living with such huge debts.

In a desperate effort to save Gu's life, his parents, who had already been laid off and were scraping an existence as waste collectors, sold their house and borrowed a lot of money to pay off medical bills.

They have accumulated debts of more than 300,000 yuan (US$37,000).

The young graduate Gu was diagnosed with a fatal disease just two months after he started his first job. He was fortunate to have parents that would do whatever they could to save his life.

The old couple are left with no one to take care of them in their time of need. They have lost their son and their only ray of hope in the world.

Since the heartbreaking letter was made public, the couple has received donations from many netizens. Some of Gu's friends said to them: "You have lost your son, but we are all your kids and you will not be lonely."

Our sad hearts are warmed by the news. But cold shivers go down our spine when we put this single case in the context of the fact that 75 per cent of the country's population has no form of health insurance.

If a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness, most will either see the person die or go bankrupt after selling their property or borrowing to pay as much of the medical expenses as possible.

What can society and the government do for parents like Gu's and others that are desperately in need of help?

The widening disparity between the rich and poor has repeatedly alerted us to the fact that we desperately need a sound social security system to help those that have been stunned by unexpected disasters such as serious illness.

We also need to foster a healthy social environment supported by sound ethics and moral standards. In this environment, the rich are not too greedy grabbing whatever profits they can lay their hands on and becoming apathetic about the misery of the poor.

In this environment, reasonable taxes and an appropriate distribution mechanism as well as efficient tax management will create more funds for the needy.

We humans are weak and fragile in the face of fatal disease and natural disasters. The moral principles of mutual help, sympathy and helping the poor and the social mechanisms based on these ideas have enabled us to survive the various calamities in the process of evolution.

Human flesh may be easily crushed by misfortunes, but these principles should remain.

We are calling for a harmonious society, with the principles mentioned above as the foundations.

(China Daily December 6, 2005)