In my ongoing self-education of Micro-Biology, I keep learning interesting things. I've been listening to Microbiology classes that cover cellular and sometimes genetic level functions within cells. I get them free from iTunes, through their iTunes U, mostly from the University of California at Bereley.
They were talking about apoptosis, which is cellular suicide. Many times, this type of cell death is initiated by a cell because some part of the immune system is telling the cell to do it. In an ideally functioning system, this happens when the cell is not functioning properly or out of control - like when it is cancerous. This leads researchers to consider inducing the body to crank up the apototic response to prevent the spread of cancer.
This seems to me to be a perfect analogy to errant humans in society. If we could only get the people that will never serve a useful purpose, that divert resources and energy that were better spent elsewhere, and whose presence eventually actively harms society to kill themselves, society would be healthier - would benefit. There is a bit of that going on, violent crime tends to self-limit a person's life.
We actively resist this "cleansing" function when it comes to care of elderly. I know that sounds horrible, and it is. But in a more primitive society, when someone ages and becomes sick or chronically ill, if there is no level of care for them, they eventually die. Some in the medical community are starting to argue about a system to figure out when a person's chances of recovery are non-existence and how to determine this point and withdraw aggressive care. There would still be pain relief, feeding, and bodily care, but the point is to pick a point where medicine stops postponing the inevitable. A body disposes of the aged cells that are no longer functioning, changing elder care is in some ways a proposal to treat them the same way an organism treats it's aged and failing components. I am sure many people reading this would be recoiling in horror. If you're picturing your beloved grandmother or father, the idea that you would not do whatever is possible is repellent. That is precisely why changes in how we approach elder care does not change. Familial affection for their elders prevents us from letting go and considering allowing nature to take its course. There is no easy way to let go. I'm sure that the person that is dying is struggling with the same dilemma. If someone is told bluntly that they will never recover and that they will never feel better, perhaps never again experience a day free of pain or with any hope of self sufficiency, that would change the way they look at it. In fact, many people now sign "do not resuscitate" orders, wanting to stop the prolonging of their suffering.
On the other end of the scale, look at what we do with soldiers in wars. We send the youngest, fittest, and most dedicated members of society out to die in battle. These are the very people that humanity needs the most. They are usually the best physical specimens, usually of an age that they could have expected to have and raise children for the next several years. These are also the most civic minded of society, the very people that value society the highest, the ones you want most to build and nurture life. I remember hearing one time that the number of men that France lost in World War I, picked out of the finest physical specimens, caused the average height of the French man to drop 3 or 4 inches.
However, equating portions of humanity with cancer is not a very good analogy. I'm not proposing some Hitlerian "final solution" to the aged, or a callous new medical policy. I'm just thinking about analogies and parallels. Humanity is not a superorganism. We're all individuals with our own values and our own value to society as a whole.
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