If you could cure every disease in the world, would you?

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Fangface74

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Feb 22, 2008
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They say obesity is a disease....

'They' being fattys I expect!


searanox said:
DoctorNick said:
THIS.

Thank you.

Can I have your babies?
Uh... considering your username, probably not.
To be fair they didn't ask to give birth to your babies, it could be something totally innocent like to eat your existing babies or simply harvest them for their organs.
 

konkwastaken

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Jan 16, 2009
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Galliam said:
I would give it out, and use that power to take control of the world. The idea that one man could cure everything would be so awe inspiring to the public that it would be easy to seize control.

seriously.
totally man you could claim you are god
 

Beefcakes

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Aug 11, 2008
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Fangface74 said:
They say obesity is a disease....

'They' being fattys I expect!
I actually hate it when people say eating disorders are a disease, I don't they are at all, even though I'm not very medically orientated...
 

ShadowPen

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Feb 25, 2009
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searanox said:
Overpopulation is not an issue stemming from a lack of disease to kill off people, but stemming from socioeconomic imbalance. The reason why population rates are relatively higher in "third-world" countries is because chances of early death are far higher and wages are much lower; families need to get as many kids out and working as fast as possible just to be able to support themselves. Coupled with traditions of large families and religious that encourage sex for the sake of breeding (as well as some patriarchal societies where men take advantage of women without much if any chance of legal retribution), you have a recipe ripe for lots of child-making. There is a reason Western nations have far lower birth rates: increased socioeconomic stability leads to more personal leisure time available for contemplation of the world, discussion of ethics, etc., leading to increased secularism, as well as much-reduced risk of disease and fatality, and increasingly ego-centric lifestyles. This is a global trend and it is not a coincidence.

So yeah, fuck disease. Contrary to popular belief, most people all feel the same sort of emotions and have the same sorts of revelations and experiences within their lifetimes. It's very easy to think of the masses as a sort of distant phenomenon, but the reality is that there are billions of people in the world who feel and think very similarly to how you do, if not identically. Nobody wants to battle with disease, especially a life-threatening one. It's absolutely unforgivable to deny the ability to live life to its fullest to the world.
You take the present into account, but not the future. Without disease, people wouldn't die as frequently. The only way to counter this is to either limit the number of children a couple can have (good luck with that) or make an age limit, upon which we are turned into soilent green (again, good luck with that). Ridding the world of disease would be a major factor in overpopulation. I'm not saying your WRONG COMPLETELY, but that you are viewing only one one card in the deck, sort to speak.

If you look at a disease like AIDS scientifically, it is a much more 'humane' disease than what was common years ago. The level of suffering between someone dying of AIDS and, say, cancer, is incalculable. The fact that you can live for years without even KNOWING you have the disease can be used as a proof of that.
 

Whiskyjakk

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Apr 10, 2008
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I would keep it secret while I built a space ship that could transport me to Mars (or get it from wherever I got the hypothetical cure for everything). Then I'd take all the cures to Mars and hide them there.

I'd only tell the world's governments where they were hidden when they had produced a functional colony on Mars and maintained it for a decade. That way diseases could be cured and any worry about overpopulation would be irrelevant on any reasonable time scale since humanity would have proved that it could expand to other planets.
 
Oct 28, 2008
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Kukul said:
I wouldn't.
Diseases have been around since the dawn of times and that didn't stop humanity's progress. Don't fix what's not broken.
you're serious about that? "Don't fix what isn't broken"? And they let you study medicine? :p
Why then? shouldn't it be the greatest wish of everybody commiting herself to years of study medicine to stop people suffering from diseases?

As I said in my last post:
The Medic Who Ubered The World said:
I guess the guys going with "No,it's against natural selection" and "Bad luck for the vitims, overpopulation" were never life-threatening sick. Saying such things while you are sitting in your comfortable room and are healthy is incredibly arrogant.

Get cancer and then tell me its perfectly ok that you die because it happens according to natural selection and the nature of life. Ignorant kids...

Everybody deserves to live. Overpopulation, famines etc, are a lame excuse. With a change of life styles this wouldn't be a problem(even today we're producing enough food to ensure the wellbeing of all humans,it's just not equally distributed.) Western societies dump as much food (like bread that's older than one day) as a good part of the thirld world needs...

And birth rates lower when the standard of living rises. Look at first and second world countries. In Japan and parts of western europe some analysts even fear that the population of these countries will shrinkin the next years from low birth rates. Give humans education, jobs and chances and you don't have to fear overpopulation!
 
Oct 28, 2008
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Kukul said:
Actually my attitude towards medicine is much more appropriate than yours. (I assume you're in med school too) If you can't handle the though that there will always be people dying all around the world, don't go near any hospital, because you'll either suffer from some kind of trauma, panic and kill someone or at least make a fool of yourself. Of course doctors have to be excellent professionals worthy of trust of their patients and have to do whatever is in their power to help their patients, but you seem to be bearing some kind of personal grudge against death.
I wish you a happy burnout.
Of course you must be pragmatic in your daily routine as a physician, no question. If you approach this job with an "must help everybody"-idealist attitude, you're gonna burn out or break very fast and won't be able to do your job properly.
Exactly as you, I expect doctors "to be excellent professionals worthy of trust of their patients and have to do whatever is in their power to help their patients", not more and not less. I just have met quite a lot of students of medicine who do not give much about that. They try to get through university while calculating whose ass they have to kiss to get the best-payed and most prestigious jobs (cosmetic surgery, their own doctor's office with golf course). I'd like to see them bursting with laughter when someone asks them to work in a huge, overcrowded hospital or even(god no!)volunteer for stuff like medicens sans frontieres(admitably, this job really sucks:p).
 

Peach_hat

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Jan 7, 2009
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Monkfish Acc. said:
Um, why wouldn't you?
If your dad was Bill Gates and he left you forty billion dollars in his will. would you take it??

Don't ask stupid questions. This isn't Hitler.com
 

BIGpanda

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Jan 13, 2009
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humanity barely deserves it. if I were in such a position I'd destroy all the research.
 

Shadow Law

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Feb 16, 2009
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If I had the cure I would wait till a person came down with the illness then put him through a couple of test. I would only give the cure to people with high IQ and physically fit (as fit as a sick person can be or before getting sick), but if they have low IQ, not fit or over weight, or frankly just a jerk to society I got some bad news for you.
I know I would be playing god and I like it like that.
 
Oct 28, 2008
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Kukul said:
I'm glad we agree. I have to admit the main reason why I want to be a physician is that I've always been interested in how the body works, how it's built, all the medical procedures and gadgets etc., not some extreme urge to help people (I always though being a human rights activist or an honest politican is a better position for people who want to focus on that), but I'm definetly not in it for the money. I despise people with that sort of motivation, but at least I don't meet them very often because in my country a young doctor earns less than a construction worker (sure it's better as you specialise and gain experience, but being a lawyer or a banker is still way more profitable).
I like your motivation:)

Anyway back to my original post: I don't think curing all diseases in the world at once would be a good idea. I think it could seriously destabilize our world and bring even more suffering. Still as a doctor I plan to work hard to help in developement of medicine, but I don't think I'll ever turn the world up side down like that.
And i may be ignorant of other people's pain, but I try to only worry about things that I have influence on.

I still think we could overcome the resulting chaos but I respect your arguments. Of course, it is a difficult issue nobody could really predict the consequences of.
 

Erana

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Feb 28, 2008
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In exchange for the cure, I would require extensive use of birth control, both chemically and surgically (and both women and men), in order to help reduce overpopulation in a humane way.
Do your part- get yer' tubes tied!
 

redstar alpha

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Dec 9, 2007
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No way, that may seem cold but if you think about it the planet can just keep the number of humuns already alive so if we didnt have disease thinning the herd then the world would be pretty fucked
 

NeutralDrow

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Mar 23, 2009
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Yes, I would.

Just because many, many people would die of the resulting wars and starvation (not to mention the many people who would still die of disease because of poor distribution) doesn't mean I wouldn't ease my own conscience by giving it out. It's an entirely selfish reason, I know, but I'd rather not feel totally responsible for millions of deaths one link away from my indirect action.

'sides, once disease is out of the way, we can focus on environmental study and birth control. Or watch as we decimate ourselves and the planet recovers on its own. That'd be unideal, but certainly interesting.
 

Mr_spamamam

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Mar 4, 2009
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NO! Not because of the effect on health care professionals, but because it would lead to massive overpopulation, scarse resources and eventually so many wars that the black death would look like a stroll through the park.

you need disease, you need war. people need to die so that there is enough to go round