Health
Good health is clearly one of the most important elements of a positive human condition. It is also an element missing for a large percentage of today’s population. Whether the lack of health is caused by diseases such as HIV/AIDS or malaria, or inadequate potable water, or lack of food, or dangerous physical environments, there is significant room for improvement. Many of the world’s health problems are well-known today and are being worked to some degree by a variety of means and organizations. In thinking about the longer-range future of health, it is more important to look for where significant improvements in overall health in the human population might come from. While there is a variety of possibilities, at this point, the most promising possibility on the longer-range horizon comes from genomics.
More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement — 2005
This book explores the boundaries of humanity given our understanding of humans and our ability to alter them as of 2005. This understanding will clearly continue to expand in the coming years, but current research already points to intriguing possibilities for altering humans in a variety of ways.
A portion of the book is dedicated to the potential of various kinds of gene therapy to cure diseases (including genetic diseases), increase memory, increase life span up to double, control pain, produce clones, and even give a person green fluorescent skin or hair (temporarily or permanently). The book also discusses progress in connecting electrodes to enhance human capabilities. This work has already restored sight to the blind and hearing to the completely deaf. Experiments have also allowed a rhesus monkey to control a robot arm with its brains through electrodes in its motor cortex attached to the arm. At the far reaches of possibility, there are experiments that suggest we may one day be able to send sounds, images, and other kinds of information to each other through direct brain-to-brain communications. The book also does a good job of discussing the obstacles yet to be overcome on this possibilities including scientific, legal, and moral obstacles.
Learn more (Broadway)
Genomics and World Health — 2002
The focus of this report is on the potential of genomics for health care in the undeveloped and developing world. There are two primary concerns: 1) because of the expense of research on genomics and biotechnology, the gap between health in developed and undeveloped countries will increase (and the diseases of the undeveloped countries will be shortchanged), and 2) the money spent on genomic research will take away from funding for more traditional and well-tried approaches of clinical practice, public health and clinical and epidemiological research. The last chapter has a series of recommendations for WHO to do what it can to ensure that genomic research benefits the entire world. There is also an excellent summary chapter on the potential of genomics for health care in general. The potential includes advances in treating monogenic and other communicable diseases; cancer and other complex multifactorial diseases; development abnormalities and mental retardation, and aging. Emerging genomics fields include pharmacogenomics, gene therapy, stem cell research, plant genomics as it relates to human health, forensic medicine, biotechnology and even evolutionary biology. We are clearly at the leading edge of a long exploration of genomics and biotechnology as it relates to human health and other facets of life.
Learn more (World Health Organization)
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