• Question: Would it be bad if diseases did not exist?

    Asked by anon-256874 on 11 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Alex Holmes

      Alex Holmes answered on 11 Jun 2020:

      Oh what a question!!!

      I personally don’t think it would be bad if diseases didn’t exist, like so many people would be alive that otherwise wouldn’t have been and so many people would be able to live completely different lives without caring responsibilities or be able to live alone when they otherwise couldn’t. I think as well if that included mental illnesses and addiction and things like that think how different society might be if everyone felt okay and stable?

      However, I do wonder if we would know nearly as much about the human body as we do if diseases never existed. Like would we have ever needed doctors for anything more than wounds? Would we have ever needed to develop medicines? Would we be able to eat rotten foods since they couldn’t make us sick? How different would our bodies be to no longer be affected by these things?

    • Photo: Laura Durrant

      Laura Durrant answered on 11 Jun 2020:

      Very interesting question! I don’t think it would be terrible if diseases didn’t exist. It would save millions of lives, as well a considerable amount of time, money and resources that goes into researching and treating them. These issues are very apparent with the current COVID-19 pandemic, for example. On the other hand, we could argue that perhaps disease is a form of population control and/or survival of the fittest. Our exposure could in fact allow us to evolve to become stronger and more resilient to certain diseases – although this is a timely and costly process in itself! Plus, the presence of disease ensures a lot of people’s jobs as doctors, nurses, researchers, pharmacologists, etc. So I would say the world would be better without disease – but it would be a very different world!

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