vorro

Assuming a purely matierialistic universe, it would appear that humanity is getting weaker, that is to say, we are genetically deteriorating.

The adage of "survival of the fittest" isn't exactly true - random chance and dumb luck can kill the speciment best adapted to its environment just as it can let the less suited one live - but from a statistical standpoint, it tends to hold a lot of water.

However, it appears that humanity, since the beginning of civilization, has been circumventing evolution.

Just as a horse nowadays is almost assured destruction when it breaks a leg, anyone existing in the stone age could expect death if they broke one of their limbs. A broken bone entailed an inability to run from predators, less likelyhood of defending oneself, or simple death from infection.

While a broken leg is necessarily a product of evolution, it showcases how easy it was for humanity to die pre-civilization. Most animal and plant species have the same mortality rate today that they have always had.

The point is that it is becoming harder for us to die. When we die young, we fail to pass along our genes to the next generation. If a child is born with a genetic defect, it was likely to die. Nowadays, many of these defects are conquerable enough that the sufferer is able to live a happy, healthy life.

The only problem is is that the genetic code still remains within that person. If this defect did not render them infertile, then they still have the ability to pass their own genes onto their children, and they to their own progeny, and so on.

As a result, the genetic issues that would have eliminated themselves continue to flourish and propagate within our collective genepool.

Physical survivability, in whose realm evolution belongs, no longer seems to hold much relevance to humanity. Nowadays, survivability for us entails the ability to afford proper medical care, or living in an area with access to such care - a form of evolution not reliant at all upon genetics.

A condition such as hemophilia would have severely shortened the lifespan of a youth not even five thousand years ago - but nowadays such an ailment is treatable enough where hemophiliacs are able to pass the genetic defect along, thus increasing the chances that one's future partner is hemophiliac or is a carrier.

Where does this leave us? Modern technology and medicine allow the gene pool to stagnate. Humanity as a whole will not truly evolve unless something happens that causes us to evolve faster than our own technology can develop.

Ethically speaking, I have avoided placing ethical judgements in this, all the above has simply been a statement of fact. Please understand that this is by no means a rallying cry to rid the world of hemophilicas and other people who have genetic defects and disorders. In fact, I'm actually quite the liberal hippie type, sanctity of life and what-not.

However, this has always presented an interesting conundrum for me, and I've been wondering: where does humanity go from here? Is there a way to "clean" the genepool morally (that is, without infringing on anyones rights, including the right to procreate)?