Tamper With Ecology?
Daily Observer
Lapius, nightly, made entries into a book on his desk, then
locked it in his drawer. I always
assumed it was some sort of a diary, but one night, he handed it to me, “Here,
see if you can add to this.”
It
was sort of a balance sheet of freedoms.
Small flashes of thought that bothered Lapius enough so that he would jot them down. They filled several pages. For example:
“DDT
saved millions of Africans from the scourge of malaria and simultaneously
endangered some wild-life species. Why
was it banned? To diminish the
population of
“Small
pox vaccination was discontinued because it caused the death of about 200
babies yearly, and because it is believed that the war against small pox is
won. The war against small pox is far
from won. If small pox strikes the
“Vaccination
against measles is incomplete. Thus
epidemics strike adolescents who have neither been vaccinated and who have not
had the more innocuous childhood form of the disease. Have we the right to tamper with ecology by
half measures? Either vaccinate
all or none.”
“Doctors
are pressured to release patients from the hospital at the earliest possible
date. This causes premature discharge of
ill people in many instances. This also
enables sick people on waiting list to enter the hospital. In other words, should an individual be made
to suffer to protect the rights of the community? If so, which person should suffer? The one in the hospital, or
the one waiting to get in?
Wouldn’t it be better to have enough hospital beds to go around, even if
it costs more? It would be cheaper than
financing a revolution in
“Ecologists
have forced the banning of DDT to preserve endangered species, yet we kill
hundreds of thousands of dogs and millions of mice yearly in experiments to
improve the quality of health of our people.
Is this inconsistent?
Particularly since DDT is banned, will man become an endangered
species? If atomic war breaks out will
man become endangered? If there is no
energy for heat, for farming, for fertilizer, will all species be endangered?”
“To
compete with a hospital that has a monopoly on certain services, one must get a
certificate of need. Does it benefit the
community for the hospital to have this monopoly, or would hospital services
improve if the institutes were faces with some competition? Is it wasteful to waste money on the health
of our people? “
“Senator
Kennedy wants to correct the mal-distribution of doctors by forcing every young
physician to upon graduation from medical school or residency to be subject to
two years service in the National Health Service Corps, which will dispatch
health care volunteers to areas of extreme need. This would be tantamount to a domestic doctor
draft. Does this infringe on the freedom
of the doctor? Does lack of a physician
in a community infringe on freedom of the ill citizen to have the benefit of
medical care. Can a balance of freedoms
be achieved?”
“Women
take ‘the pill’ or have intrauterine devices inserted so that they can have
freedom of sexual expression without fear of pregnancy. These devices kill a certain number of women
yearly. Have these women become free, or
are they imprisoned, in order to insure freedom of responsibility to their male
partners. What price freedom now?”
“Abortion
is not legal. Is the right to kill the
last stage in permissiveness, and the best substitute for discipline?”
Lapius scrutinized me as I scanned his lines, waiting for a
reaction.
“What
do you think, Harry? Will it float?”
“Possibly,”
I told him, “if you put it in the proper water.”