Evolutionary harm.
This is the 21st Century and we can treat so many previously untreatable medical conditions. It’s wonderful isn’t it?
Isn’t it?
In a way, yes, it’s fabulous that people I know aren’t dead thanks to medical intervention, that I’m not dead thanks to modern medical intervention. But in some ways I’ve been thinking that the long term effects are unknown and so potentially dangerous.
Think about what we’re doing for a moment. Take theoretical woman A - she has a narrow pelvis and is pregnant. The baby is breech and there are complications. So the hospital performs an emergency caesarian and both Mum and baby are fine. But only a short time ago she would have likely died in childbirth and the baby would have died too. Tragic, but evolution in action really. So baby is a girl and has inherited mum’s narrow pelvis so when she comes to have children she could well have the same problems and the pattern repeats, and worsens because we have selected that narrow pelvis as a positive trait to be perpetuated and enhanced.
Take theoretical child B - who has a chronic illness and is essentially kept alive through a serious drug regime. This child lives a reasonably normal life, just has to have injections at regular intervals. Again, just a short time ago that child would have died, or at least not produced children with the same condition.With IVF and fertility treatments we are producing children who should never have been born and we are undoing natural population controls as we smother the planet with our sheer numbers. We tear the planet apart and take what we think we need with no regard for the ecosystem on a local or global level.
Take this a few generations down the line and we are coping with a sick population with high levels of diabetes, of epilepsy, of heart disease, of hormonal imbalances, of growth problems, of such a huge range of disorders that our medical technology has to work harder and go further to cope and that just perpetuates the problem. How far are we prepared to go? What are we prepared to destroy in order to achieve this artificial longevity and sustained poor health?
We are supporting a weakened Human Species. We are affecting evolution and it’s not in a good way. And that’s just the damage we’re doing to ourselves. We are doing so much harm on a global level it’s unbelievable.
So, what happens when the oil runs out? When the drugs can’t be made and there’s no general anaesthetic for major operations, no internet. When the fuel is all gone and there is no plastic apart from that lying in landfill. Some predictions say within 4 years, some say 10, but it’s coming and it’ll happen sooner than you think.
Hmm - well firstly the huge rates of diabetes we have currently are not hereditary but are to do with lifestyle factors such as diet (poor) and exercise (lack of). As are most of the chronic diseases we face - heart disease, cancer etc.
There isn’t really any evidence as far as I know that genetic diseases are increasing because of modern medicine, but while I certainly wouldn’t want my own life to be artificially prolonged when I was old and chronically ill, I actually find it amazingly callous to say that children born with conditions which allow them to have a substantial quality of life and are correctable should just be allowed to die. My nephew was born with a liver condition. Yes he required surgery after birth, and needs medical care. Are you seriously saying he should have been left to die? Would you say this if this was a child you were related to?
Apart from anything else - his condition is not hereditary.
Comment by polly styrene — October 7, 2008 @ 8:09 am
Also a baby girl will not necessarily inherit her mother’s pelvis size in any case - the purpose of sexual reproduction being that there are two sets of genes. So she could inherit the pelvis size of her paternal grandmother (if genetics were that simple which they aren’t).
Comment by polly styrene — October 7, 2008 @ 8:22 am
Not should, Polly, could, maybe I phrased it badly.
What I’m asking is what happens if/when the capacity to treat chronic conditions is lost? What happens when the gene pool is so altered that the human race can’t survive without more and more allopathic intervention - which is a whole other post in itself.
Comment by SharkBait — October 7, 2008 @ 2:18 pm