The right to be humane

Evolution is the shaping force behind all living things we see around us. Natural selection, the mechanism by which evolution operates, is a process where the “strong” genes, or features, are selected at the cost of the “weak” genes. All organisms in the nature drive to survive, and processes have developed where they select the “fittest” partners to have the “fittest” offspring with, who will be able to cope best under the pertaining conditions. This is the law of nature.

Depending from whose angle you look at the process, it may seem very different. A pathogen may spread this way in a population, causing symptoms for the organism in which it lives. In nature, there is a constant battle between those who “have what it takes” to make it and those that do not. In simplicity, this means that eventually, the fittest will survive. 

Some diseases are “smart” this way, and can persist in the population. There are several examples still without a cure. A constant and on-going battle among researchers is to understand the causalities and to discover new functional treatments for obesity, mental illnesses and cancer. The medical field is advancing every second, but we are still very far from having the complete image of the underlying forces behind some currently unstoppable diseases.

Every family have their unique tendency for certain diseases. In a small country like Finland, some rare genes have become common in comparison to countries with more diversity. Variants, which elsewhere do not “show up” among the large quantity of other genes, may here create a phenotype in which a rare disease is expressed. In Finland, people are more prone to diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases than in other parts of the world. We also have an overrepresentation of mental illnesses, such as depression, in relation to many places. Also, the worldwide trend is an increasing prevalence in obesity and mental illnesses.

Under constant pressure from governments to save money, there have been cuts in health services covering costs to treat certain illnesses. In the past years, we have decided to prioritize treating the illnesses that are easily curable. It is clear that economical growht is important, but this leads to the situation that sometimes there is a need to prioritize. However, I argue, that decision making which is driven by the needs of growing economy instead of the needs coming from humanity, are most times in contradiction.

Personally, I grew up in a family where my father suffered from depression when I was a child. In the circle of my close friends, someone in almost everyone´s relatives either suffers from alcoholism or another mental illness. We know that there is a genetic component to depression and other mental health conditions, and environment is also very crucial to determine if the illness is manifested or not.

I argue, that the way we think as a society, underlines the importance of economical growth. 

It is important to have a direction of growth in the way we live. We need to be positive and move forward. However, my concern is that we can easily become blinded by the way of economical thinking and we tend to forget the humane values. I already see this very clearly in my everyday life. There does not seem to be room to be ill in our efficient working culture, and at the same time people have more absences due to mental illnesses during these days than ever before. This is an alarming trend.

The reason I am writing this, is that I am concerned that we may be making the wrong decisions. Personally I am affected by economically- driven trends in my everyday life. I have experienced being ill, and felt pressure due to the expectations around me. I even got fired once, supposingly due to being ill too much. The overarching image from the media is that one should be successful at work, in private life, raise a family and be able to do this while being constantly positive, effective and brilliant. It is easily understood from expectations like that, that if you are sometimes sick, you have failed. It is a negative -feeding loop.

My question is, that should we let the natural selection just wipe this kind of people off the population? I do not think so. As humans, who have the unique capability to empathy, and the brain to solve extremely complex questions, we should be able to think beyond this primitive way of accepting that not everyone can make it in the society of today. By observing the truth and acting upon it, I am positive that wise decision making, we can build a society where also those of us with some illness can have a good life.