MEDICINE: attempted health restoration funded by the prosperous

Individuals die when any one of their biological control systems experiences an instability beyond that which it is capable of correcting. Small cuts bled and healed, severed arms, legs or heads were usually fatal. Low levels of toxicity were dealt with by an evolved biochemistry, but large doses were poisonous and terminal. Medicine evolved as a practice of intervening into the perturbed health condition of an individual with an attempted restoration.

For most humans most of the time... apart from the animal promptings for food, sleep, excretion and sex... there is no awareness as to the purpose or condition of the majority of the organs and control systems in their body. In the absence of discomfort or visible abnormality, the body is a mysterious background presence which sustains existence. Consequently, relative to the abysmal ignorance of a patient, any individual who takes the trouble to speculate about the operation and purpose of any of the diverse anatomical parts, will feel qualified to propose remedies for any malfunction. Medicine is the domain of those who promote themselves as being able to provide options to the unenlightened afflicted, however unsubstantiated the merits of the proposed treatment happen to be. The fundamental model therefore of this behavioural practice is that of an 'enlightened' individual helping an 'afflicted' one. Thru observation, training, experience and aptitude, certain individuals can specialize and make their skills of health restoration available to the remainder of the group. The psychological complexity and potential of this core 'doctor-patient' relationship goes beyond the physical skills and medications utilised, and remains as yet a source of seemingly inexplicable consequences.

In order to enhance their own resilience, states began to appreciate the prudence of funding a social organization that could provide some measure of health restoration to large segments of the population effected by war, natural disasters and epidemics. In pragmatic terms, living healthy individuals were positive assets to the community group, whereas sick and injured individuals would either be liabilities, an on-going cost, or an embarrassment to the ruling regime.

Repair and maintenance is not free for humans any more than it is for vehicles. The medical apparatus of a health system of a society is a drain upon the resources of a society, no matter what the political structure. The shamans, witch-doctors, sorcerers, or general practitioners are never likely to dispense their skills and resources for free, lest the recipients be tempted suppose they are of no value. Whether the health restoration attempt is facilitated by a social agency or an individual, the likelihood is high that the least expensive and most readily available treatments will be attempted first. If these fail, increasingly expensive options are progressively trialled. The eventual consequence of this process is the supposition that the 'best' medicine always seems to cost the most. Largesse towards the supposed medic has always been the expected means of acquiring their most powerful drugs and advanced skills.

To protect itself and its members from exploitation, states must have a monitoring system in place that is able to verify that all medicine practised within its jurisdiction is supported by verifiable science devoid of vested interest. Because individual lives are frequently at stake, this is an aspiration that bristles with dilemmas. The pragmatic course of action suggests that the extensive use of individuals in precarious life circumstances... who are willing and have nothing to lose... be undertaken to trial new and innovative treatments. Whether the treatments are 'mainstream' or 'alternative', the consequences of such trials need to be rigorously evaluated and either endorsed or officially prohibited.

Once treatments become officially available... because their trials satisfied pre-determined criteria... they should then be subject to a further economic evolutionary filtering process. A treatment that succeeds retains its funding, but one that fails loses its funding or is penalised. It will endure as a species of treatment depending upon its success or failure.

A resourceful PR department is essential when using medical technology to sustain a life form with no prospect of social benefit. The arguments for conducting such a practice need to be replete with persuasive contrivances. Gardeners nurture their chosen phenotypes up to but not beyond the end of their life-cycle. Neither nature nor the motor vehicle industry ever intended individual entities to be perpetuated after their use-by date.