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To: gore3000
And I pointed out that while Darwin expressed concern over humans having "defeated" natural selection with doctors treating the sick and prolonging the lives of those who are "weaker" (with lowered constitution) he did not suggest any kind of a "solution" to his concerns.

Even had he suggested such, it would have been part of his philosophy, not a part of biological evolution. Biological evolution and extensions thereof deals with what happens in biology, not what people should make happen.
522 posted on 03/30/2002 10:40:13 AM PST by Dimensio
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To: Dimensio
And I pointed out that while Darwin expressed concern over humans having "defeated" natural selection with doctors treating the sick and prolonging the lives of those who are "weaker" (with lowered constitution) he did not suggest any kind of a "solution" to his concerns.

You can point out as much as you like, and you can spin as much as you like also but the meaning of the following paragraph speaks for itself:

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.
From: Darwin, "The Descent of Man", Chapter V.

576 posted on 03/30/2002 7:48:37 PM PST by gore3000
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