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One thing in class today that we briefly touched on was that advances in medical technology,  and quality of life improvements have allowed those who would not have been able to survive in the past, to live normally.

To clarify- in the ages before developments of modern medicine and technology, people living in the not so comfortable and warm houses that most of us live in today, or people with things like cancer, tumors, organ failures, pneumonia, infection or even the common cold, of these people the only the strongest would have survived.

Today, surgeons can successfully remove tumors, treat cancer, replace organs, and treat all sorts of infections, conditions and diseases that normally would have been fatal which is absolutely terrific. The works of people like Eleanor A. Bliss who set the ground for the development of modern antibiotics or Dr. Michael DeBakey who devised a heart operation that was recently used to save his own life are rightfully honored and celebrated.

 However one thing that occured to me is that as technology as wonderful as it is, allows more lives to continue, but as more people who probably would not have been able to survive in the past are surviving now, are we thwarting Darwinian natural selection? Are we allowing weak, unfit, genes to remain in the gene pool? As more of the "unfit" people continue to live, perhaps we are potentially creating more work for ourselves with more people who are susceptible to disease, needing treatments, and aide.

However, I am not suggesting putting a stop to research in advancing technology and life saving. To me the positives of saving lives greatly outweigh the negatives, but I just wanted to point out that some negatives might exist, and suggest some effects they might have.