quote: | Originally posted by StaticFive
Before anyone gets pissed... I'm running ligandfit right now...
I'm only curious to see what other people think concerning this issue.
At the risk of starting a neverending thread, I have to question the moral stipulations involved with finding cures for cancer and protein-based diseases. Most people are of the beleif that throwing a cure at any ailment a human is capable of attaining is a wonderful thing. I don't disagree with this viewpoint, nor do I agree with it. Simply stated, whether you beleive in fate or not, these things are around for a reason. Cancer exists to some because god made it, and it exists to others because in some people, oncogenes have a tendency to stop functioning properly. Aside from the pain of losing a loved one, is cancer such a problem in society? Yes, death is painful, but to avoid one's problems is no way to solve them. If cancer were miraculously cured tomorrow as a result of this innovative breakthrough in technology, would the world be a better place? Surely overpopulation cannot be a very fun burden on society, and it cannot be solved by the means of a technological miracle such as this. Food production has its limits, especially when all the people who didn't die from cancer are living on the world's current farmlands. At this point, I'm not sure whether the cost of a solution to cancer is greater than it's positive yield; I fear if it is, the cost will not be evident until far in the future.
My intention is not to upset those that have lost friends and family to cancer. If I have, I am deeply sorry! My intention was only to discuss the possible foibles of a cure to cancer, and and to see what other people think about it. |
I take no offense, even though I lost my grandpa to cancer.
I have an opinion on your comment, but I have stuff do to, so I'll brief it...
1) Curing cancer will not significantly increase the world's population. Even if it did, it is still worth saving the countless lives. What you are basically saying is that the loss of countless lives is worth keeping nature's human population balance (as if we know shit about it in the first place).
2) There are always new diseases coming into existence which must be handled (ex. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, as well as migrating diseases such as West Nile Virus)
3) Our ability to find cures for future diseases relies on our scientific discoveries today, which include how to tackle unique problems like cancer.
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