What we don't know
Taubes’ article is rather scathing. A lot of the problems in medicine stems from the incredible complexity of the human body. Hard-core theoretical physics is easy by comparison: we know much more about the inner workings of the universe than we know about ourselves.
Taubes’ article is rather scathing. A lot of the problems in medicine stems from the incredible complexity of the human body. Hard-core theoretical physics is easy by comparison: we know much more about the inner workings of the universe than we know about ourselves.
The ethical dilemma is this: in order to know more, we have to experiment on ourselves. People will necessarily get sick and die from new treatments that turn out to be faulty. This is the source of much mistrust in the medical field and of science in general. It is hard to promote the wonders of medical science when the doctors cannot tell you what is wrong with you. Despite those misgivings, medical science has advanced light-years. Far fewer maladies plight us than even fifty years ago, and life spans have increased dramatically.
Do we really know what makes us healthy? I think the answer is: sort of. For all my touting of the wonders of science, we still know so little. It is good that articles like this are popularizing the problems with medical science, and the difficulty epidemiologists face day to day. Being conscious of our shortcomings is a big step towards improvement. I don’t see these sorts of criticisms as “tearing down� the field.
Comments
Wow...I have never thought about our knowledge about ourselves in reference to our knowledge about the universe. I must say I find it very disappointing. I would like to see more experimenting with regards to human medicine, but I wonder how we will get past the ethical problems? Will we start growing people in cloning labs for the sake of research?
Posted by: Bess R | February 13, 2009 8:29 AM