Modern Medicine: Asset, or curse?

[nosredna]

So I was having a conversation with my friend earlier, and we were discussing the evolution of different animals, and origins of certain species etc. ANYWAY, it got us thinking;
Modern medicine - Possibly the greatest advance in human civilisation. Begining with the discovery of Penicillin, countless lives have been saved, and improved. A large majority of the deadly diseases which once ran rampant, and killed thousands of people, have now been irradicated, or have become easyly prevented and cured. Now, this sounds pretty damn good right? Nothing bad has come from advances in medicine...or has it.
If you will remeber back to your highschool biology textbooks under the chapter 'evolution' you will notice a phrase; 'Survival of the Fittest'. Ok, so basically, only the strongest of the species survives, and reproduces and continues this strength throughout the generations. Simple enough theory. But hang on. If the majority of the major causes of death for mankind have been removed, doesn't that mean that it is no longer the 'fittest' surviving?
What im trying to get at is, that if modern medicine has removed a contributing factor for removing the weak, trimming the fat of the species, has it not, then in theory weakend the species? By removing such dramatic events in history, we have increased the numbers of 'weaker' individuals in society. Another example; IVF treatments. People who would normally be unable to reproduce, are suddenly able to. Men with 80% lower sperm counts than average, are suddenly able to have children, who themselves now carry these 'weaker' genes.
Now im not bagging on medicine, I personally think it's great! I am simply propsing the idea that through strengthening, we are weakening ourselves.
Firstly, would you agree with this idea I have put forward, and secondly, somewhat in contradiction to the above, would you agree that although this may be the case, the philosophy of life has evolved in our species as a result of our improved civilisation? We have gone from the instinct of "reproduce and survive", to a mantra of "have fun and live life to the fullest". As a result, we have caused an increase in high risk activities, such as smoking, drug abuse, and other dangerous activites. Would this new ideal in life create a new form, and way of 'trimming the fat'. Have we removed one area which causes death, and accidently replaced it with a new one?
Discuss, and give me your opinion.

[Elfer]

Well actually, in modern medicine, we're starting to see a shift towards a focus on preventing illness rather than treating it. This encourages people to lead healthier lives, and will generally help with a lot of the things you're talking about.

[Boltrig]

Survival of the fittest doesnt really apply to mankind any more in the same way that it does to other organisms. Mankind has other qualities besides fitness.

Take a fox, or other urban scavenger. If its born ill or contracts an illness, its unlikely to survive long with the amount of dangers in an urban situation, and therefore unlikely to pass on its illness.

Humans have to work on an entirely different set of principles though. Take Prof. Steven Hawking. Severe motor neuron disease, but you cant say he's weakening the species. Humans are intellectual creatures, and as such cant be judged on physical condition alone.

[HighlyIllogical]

Brilliantly stated.

Humans are like no other species. Modern medicine has saved plenty of deserving lives and will continue to do so. The overuse of antibiotics should be reduced, naturally, and there should be a lot more preventative care, but, otherwise, modern medicine FTW.

[nosredna]

At 4/27/07 03:46 PM, Boltrig wrote:

:Take Prof. Steven Hawking. Severe motor neuron disease, but you cant say he's weakening the species. Humans are intellectual creatures, and as such cant be judged on physical condition alone.

Good point. I agree that humans have an added intelligence that other animals do not, but can you really say that this strengthens us, makes us fitter? I'll use your example of Steven Hawkin, very smart man. But have his theories around black holes and the universe done anything apart from give us reasons as to why things are the way they are? Has this actually helped the civilisation continue itself?
Has our intelligence caused a paradox of sorts in our civilisation? We discover something, eg the automobile, this results is great advances in society...but also remove the need for humans to walk, thus resulting in a more sedentary lifestyle, not to mention the health affects of pollution emitted from said discovery. Through this discovery, we limit ourselves, and create the potential for harm to ourselves. Another example, atomic theory...not long after; nuclear weapons...
Fitness is the contribution of an individual to the next generation's gene pool.
If our contributions are advances in technology and medicine, and theories about the universe, etc, through knowledge comes power...through power comes greed. By knowing how things work, will it not be long untill things are exploited, even if by accident? As i said before, our advances generally have some form of negative repercussion. If this is our contribution to the next generation, does it not mean we have poor fitness?

:only ideas, im not saying this is right, just putting it out there and seeing what others think

[InsertFunnyUserName]

You have a very good point there. Although modern medican is curing lives, it will eventually weeken them. Now doctors are throwing drugs at every patiant that walks through the door like it's candy. Later on, it will come back to bite us in the ass.

I'm going put out and example here: the avian flu. Let's pretend that the desease has mutated so that it can be passed from person to person. If someone has the desease, than isntead of trying to cure them, we quarantine them so that they infect any one else. If they are in constant contact with doctors, those doctors will get infected and spread that desease to their other patiants. Keep everone who had that desease in an enclosed space so that they don't contaminate anyone else.

Now, it's not ethical and it would never be allowed to happen, but it makes sense when you think about it.

[morefngdbs]

My ex works in a hospital, for the Dept. of Family Medicine.
What no one has brought up is the Agency(s) that regulate what is allowed to be perscribed are controlled by the DRUG companies through the goverment.
You can only use perscribed/ approved medicines for diseases.
That is the hook.
That is why Diabets is a desease, why obesity is now a desease.
If you have a desease you can only be treated with Medicine that is approved.
So guy's again it is all about the money, which is why we don't cure the common cold we treat it.
Anyone have any idea how much money is made by these pharmaceutical companies from just that alone !

Look at class one Diabites, why isn't it prevallent in China ,India, and all around that area?
They are healthier than us you may think. It isn't true.

They have a naturally growing herb -no it isn't pot- this herbs root when ingested works on the pancreas to off set type one diabetes.
Is anyone surprised this is an illegal herb in the U.S. & Canada.
You see it is illegal to treat deseases with anything that isn't approved medicine.
So while there have been amazing strides forward, if there is anything that gets in the way of the billion dollar profits of the pharmaceutical companies they have the goverment shut it down.

Imagine where we could be if anything that works was used & nothing could be called illegal if it helped people who were sick... UH Oh, That would mean that Marijuana would become a medicine (which it already is used) everywhere.