Are We Making the Human Race Weaker?

Before anyone calls me a Nazi or something else before reading, I want to state that with this article im mostly just playing devil's advocate. I believe that anyone that desires to live should be able to despite genetic defects or inherited problems. I myself wouldnt be alive today if it werent for modern medicine that fixed a genetic defect with my heart valve a few years ago at 22. That being said I want to talk about whether or not modern medicine and selected prolonging of life has made the human race weaker.

For the majority of human existence and still for the majority of animals, nature had a way of weeding out undesirable traits and promoting desirable ones. Those who werent fit enough or strong enough to carry their weight, often perished and this one of the main ways how human beings were able to evolve over time. We see remnants of this in our primal behavior, for example human males tend to find larger breasts and a bigger waistline attractive primarily because they symbolize a fertility. The same is true for women who find muscular men and features such as a strong jawline appealing because it shows an ability to protect their young.

So the argument some people are making is that in the modern day, much of what helped us evolve as a species is now being left to reproduce and survive, something that wouldnt have happened in the wild. For example the amount of C- sections in child birth is raising because women with narrower hips who would have previously died in childbirth are now passing those traits on to their children. People like me who have a genetic heart defect would have died at a young age but now I can pump a few kids out and potentially pass that onto them. I dont think anyone (anyone with reasonable sanity) is saying that we cleanse the population of people with these defects, they are just stating something interesting that has happened.

There is also the point to be made that our human bodies have become second to our brains and the ability to save people from an early death doesn't matter because the physical traits matter less. In the past if you had someone born with muscular dystrophy, the tribe was unable to take care of them and sacrifice their time to their care, but now with support structures in place anything is possible. There are many cases where people who have been given prolonged life through modern medicine, have made great contributions to the human race after their sickness. Steven Hawking comes to mind and also so does Hal Finney who was one of the founding fathers of bitcoin well into his progression of ALS.

I think overall the way that modern medicine has given life and hope to many who would have never experienced it, is an amazing thing. Yes maybe there are a few undesirable traits that are being bred into the average human, but I think the effect is much less important than it might have been fifty thousand years ago. The human race's strength has always been the brain and as long as that continues to evolve I have no doubt that these other things are far less relevant.

-Calaber24p