[furball4paws]

I am in no way against modern medicine. But we have screwed around with the natural mechanisms of evolution because of it. The implication is that we cannot stop half way or our gene pool will be badly corrupted. So we must persist until we have the means to correct genetic defects by means other than natural selection.

[js1138]

I am in no way against modern medicine. But we have screwed around with the natural mechanisms of evolution because of it.

It would be great to eliminate really unpleasant genetic defects like ALS from the germ line, but some great people would be missing from our history if we simply allowed the "weak" to die in childhood. Genetic diversity has advantages for the population.

[Thatcherite]

I am in no way against modern medicine. But we have screwed around with the natural mechanisms of evolution because of it. The implication is that we cannot stop half way or our gene pool will be badly corrupted. So we must persist until we have the means to correct genetic defects by means other than natural selection.

I am right with you there. But I suspect that if technical civilisation were to collapse those who are "unfit" in a biological sense in the wild would be the least of our problems. Not 1% of the human race would survive the decade.