CJP asked:
When a person before the age of “modern medicine” say 1900 or so had a terminal illness, natural selection and the absense of a cure would cause that particular person to die prematurely, in which case, they could not pass their defect or disease on to any offspring (if they didn’t have any yet).
Now, medicine has evolved to where we are keeping people serious diseases such as depression, diabetes, asthma, etc alive with drugs. Diabetes, in particular, is a problem of the future as the rate of diagnosis is climbing every year.
This hits on a personal note because I have serious asthma and probably would have died before the age of 5 if there wasn’t today’s medicine. Now I am worried about passing that on to any children I might have, and I’m considering not having any due to this and some other conditions I have, such as degenerated discs in my back at the age of 15. I’m 28 now….
My feeling is that the reason health care costs are astronomical is because each person has more problems today because we aren’t weeding out the weak or defective.
Opinions?
3 replies on “Is anyone scared that advances in medicine will make humans weaker in the long run?”
im not scared but it may happen
if the theory of evolution holds, it’s not humans who are getting weaker but the viruses are getting stronger. for each remedy we conjure or every treament we find, it may cure the ailment then, but eventually, stronger viruses evolve to overcome the treatments and drugs. Much like cockroaches, diseases come and go but always get stronger in the end. So there are more needs for stronger medicines to confront them. it may be that it may weaken the indivdual. The abundance of one cell leads to a shortage of another which is why people may appear to be getting more ailments than usual. I believe overall that medicine today is helping us live longer and better for the most part. And in the end, there’s no money in curing diseases, only in treating them.
First off I want to say… COOL! I have the same initials! CJP!
And, now for the question… in my opinion, there is so much left to chance, even with the event of building new drugs and keeping people alive. There are errors, mistakes. I don’t think that we have gotten to a point to where we are going to live forever or not be able to pass on our diseases to our offspring…
Remember: 1. That disease is inside our DNA.. if it’s gonna get passed on, it’s gonna get passed on.
2. Life is simply more tolerable for those of us afflicted with the disease. Also, maybe making it possible for us to live a full, happy, healthy life.
3. These new medications should be considered a Godsend….
4. I live in San Antonio and wouldn’t mind killing off half the growing, overflowing, freeway clogging offspring around here!!! maybe the FDA could outlaw some of the life-substaining drugs here… 😉