Whos To Blame Essays - Philosophy, Science, Academia, Ethics

Who's To Blame Whos To Blame? Looking at the world today, we can see that there are many things that have changed throughout time. One of these things would be that people are living longer and healthier lives. On the other hand there are also people that are not living such heal y lives and for a reason that seems to be a mystery. No matter how much time or research scientists put into these issues they never seem to solve some of the great mysteries that plague humans today. Some of these issues would be cancer, AIDS, and he t disease. Some people think that these problems have just recently come up in society, when in reality these sicknesses have been around for many years. A major thing that has changed would be the life expectancy rate has risen within the last couple ecades so therefore people are dying from these types of diseases instead of from things like, ...violence or infectious disease... (Asimov 466), as they have in the past. These diseases are important now because people are dying from them and there s so much time, money, and effort being put into the research and possible cures. The problem is that there are so many diseases and scientists to go around and it still seems that we are moving too slowly for a possible cure or miracle drug for these lnesses. Asimov in his essay entitled Cholesterol speaks about how cholesterol is now a bigger threat to humans now more than ever before (466). At the time that this essay was written there was only one or two pills out that were aiding in the effectiveness f preventing death caused by heart disease. Asimov assures his readers that , There is hope, (467). The thing that has only recently been brought to the population is that, ... we are all susceptible to AIDS... (Gould 483). Stephen Gould goes on say: We didnt notice the spread at first. In a population of billions, we pay little attention when one increases t two, or eight to sixteen, but when one million becomes two million, we panic, even though the rate of doubling has not increased. (483) He realizes how humans think and how our society seems to deal with disease and other serious matters. We as a race seem to overlook things if they are not affecting us directly. He doesnt believe that we can fight nature. He says, Our species has t won its independence from nature, and we cannot do all that we can dream. Or at least we cannot do it at the rate required to avoid tragedy, for we are not unbounded from time (Gould 484). In this aspect he differs from Asimov because Gould believe that nature plays a larger role in determining the fate of humans. Asimov believes that people can help themselves more times than not. The Clan of One-breasted Women by Terry Tempest Williams has a totally different look at cancer. Her family was victim of the government and their bomb testing. She actually can track the cause of her families cancer to this harmful thing. Most statistics tell us breast cancer is genetic, hereditary, with rising percentages attached to fatty diets, childlessn s, or becoming pregnant after thirty (486). Her essay is much unlike the other two in that she doesnt look at the medical aspect to the illness, she is looking at a way to possibly be reimbursed for her losses. The only medical viewpoint that she ta s is to describe the horrific pain that her family encountered because of the deadly disease. In this essay she doesnt focus on the possible cures, but she does blame careless people for her suffering. All of these authors have different standpoints the issues of disease, illness, and dying, and who is at fault for it. When I read all of these various view points I understood all of them and could see where they were essentially coming from. I believe that all of these people have a valid fight or point of view. In a way I would say that in the larger picture all o these aspects are things to blame in the fight against any disease. In a way it is the fault