Survival of the Unfit?

Medicine is growing ever more efficient in curing the ills of the human race. But is it simultaneously weakening the race by ensuring the survival of the unfit? The question, largely academic in Nietzsche's day, is being raised anew by a man who has done as much as anyone to help human survival: Rene Jules Dubos, pioneer in microbiology, whose discoveries opened the era of antibiotics.

"For the first time in the history of living things," said Dubos in Omaha, "we are allowing the survival of large numbers of biological misfits, many of whom will become a burden for society . . . All kinds of hereditary defects that used to be rapidly eliminated by evolutionary selection are now being reproduced in our communities. In other words, we are allowing the accumulation of defective genes in the human stock by providing a type of medical care that permits those suffering from hereditary disease to live longer and to have children. This policy may constitute a step toward racial suicide, however noble it may appear in the light of our religious convictions and present-day ethics."

Retorted President Holland T. Jackson of the American Academy of General Practice: "Who are we as doctors to say who shall survive and who shall be left by the wayside? We should not try to play God, ever."

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