I was thinking the other day about the perceived increase in the number of people with cancer. Let’s say today cf. fifty or seventy-five years ago. Maybe it’s fact, maybe it’s not. Let’s assume for now that it is a fact that today we have more people afflicted with cancer. And other serious diseases.
I was thinking that part of this is likely that since people with these diseases live longer due to advances in medicine, they’re more likely to reproduce and propagate their disease-prone genes. Interesting thought.
It’s probably also worth considering how much this would change if the treatments focused on the root causes of such diseases. Sure, someone can be prone to something but that doesn’t mean we can’t defeat that ailment if we address its exact source, meaning the person and their presumed-hereditarily-disease-prone offspring could be free of the disease despite genetic predisposition.