Great Job, but Still a Way to Go.....

Doctors and scientists alike should all be applauded, and give themselves a huge pat on the back.  The advancements that have been made in medical science over the years have been staggering.  We have made huge improvements in keeping people alive and improving the quality of live for millions.  But the improvements we have made are also what could undo us in the future.  Let me elaborate.

I should be dead.  No really if we had the same medicine we had a century ago I would have probably died when I was twenty years old because I would have had an immovable kidneys stone that would have eventually sent my kidney necrotic.  From there the toxic build up would have shut down all the other organs in my body until I would finally succumb to a slow and painful death.

However, the quality of surgeries to remove kidney stones has improved so much that a stone can be removed without even breaking the skin, keeping the kidney working and the patient alive.  Now not only  am I alive I have been able to get married and more importantly, have children.  Although my kids have not been burdened with my cursed affliction, they will carry it.  In the past the disease would have ended with me, but now it is even more prevalent because I have passed on my genetic code, as have many others.

Another example of where this is again obvious is with cystic fibrosis.  Cystic fibrosis (CF) like cystinuria is recessive genetic disorder.  But that is pretty much where the similarities end.  CF is a disease that causes a thick mucus layer in the lungs and digestive tract.  In years gone by patients would have been lucky to see adulthood with the life expectancy of a CF  sufferer in 1980 being just 16 years old.  Today that figure is around 40.

Not only has medical science managed to stretch out the life expectancy of CF sufferers by 24 years, but they have managed to dramatically improve the quality of life of those patients too.  If you take a look at a young 22 year old by the name of Nathan Charles you’ll see what I mean.

Nathan Charles plays rugby for the Wallabies, the Australian rugby union national side.  To achieve such a position makes him one of the top elite athletes in the country.  Once upon a time he would have had to worry about living outside of his teens, now he can enjoy a wonderful quality of life.

So medical science, take your hat off.  Take a bow.  What has been achieved has been remarkable, but we are creating a problem.

As the quality of lives and life expectancy of people with genetic disorders increases, so does their propensity to procreate and pass on their genetic abnormalities.  Basically, what we will see in the future is a larger percentage of people who are afflicted by genetic disorders and also those carrying the defective genes.  We need to come up with an answer.

I guess we could go back to good old Darwinism, stop treating the sick and let nature weed them out.  But that would be truly barbaric.  It is in our nature to help those around us.  It is why we built hospitals in the first place and why we have a multi billion dollar medical industry.  It is also unworkable.  I mean, try putting a Darwinism policy through any legislature in the western world, and I guarantee you the only thing that will die is the political career of proposing politician.

People with genetic abnormalities could be banned from breeding.  Personally I would take great offence to this.  It is human nature to want to procreate, and I have.  Both my kids carry one of my defective genes, but should I have been banned from reproducing?  It is a persons right to choose to start a family, and everyone takes a risk of having a sick child.  For people like me that risk might be slightly greater, but my wife and I got medical advice before we conceived and although my kids are carriers they are not going to have my disease.


So what is the solution?  Well, I don't know if you have seen in the news about a month ago monkeys were born from stem cells.  The following article from Medical News Today outlines what they did.  


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240036.php

So how will this help?  Effectively what we will be able to do is cut and paste strands from the DNA sequence in order to create a 'hybrid' individual from two or more embryos.  If we know that a parent will be passing on a genetic abnormality to a child, in the embryonic stage we will be able to cut out that DNA strand and replace it with a healthy one.  As this will effect the DNA at the rawest level it will remove the defect altogether.

Now this will not help the current living and breathing among us who are carrying genetic defects but it could help our unborn offspring.  I know a few parents of children with genetic defects who would give an arm and a leg to go back in time and cure their children before they were born.

I know that this is controversial research, but personally I am very excited.  I personally think that allowing our children to have happier and healthier lives is well worth it.  Of course, the large pharmaceutical companies probably won'[t like it as there will be less sick people being born with whom they can peddle their drugs to.  Until next time, stay well:)