On Feb 1, 2005, at 9:38 AM, DJA wrote:
Exactly. The War on Terrorism(tm) is the equivalent of the March of Dimes' fight against birth defects: the only solution to either is to eliminate people or wait for evolution to clean up after itself.
That is an unfair characterization of the fight against birth defects.
Evolution does *not* always "clean up after itself" nowadays. Modern medicine often rescues those whom evolution would have "cleaned up" in the past. Sometimes this is a great cost to society.
Unlike "The War on Terrorism(tm)", the fight against birth defects has solutions that can be shown to work. Making sure that women who might get pregnant get enough folic acid has been a huge boost, for example. I can cite many others. While this does not eliminate *all* birth defects, it certainly eliminates unnecessary ones.
In addition, as we get better at gene manipulation, I can certainly foresee at time when we can correct *all* genetic problems.
Now, I have no idea about the March of Dimes as an organization. But calling the fight against birth defects pointless is incorrect and unfair.
-a
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