Quote:
Originally Posted by SoulKiss
We meddle too much already to worry about this.
If things like cancer are caused by "dirty genes" then without medical intervention these things would go away - people with diabetes would suffer the complications and as such be less likely to breed for example.
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Yes and no.
That line of thought only makes sense for conditions which take effect before the sufferer has had a chance to breed. Breast cancer is a particular bad example because the vast majority of people affected are above the average age for having a first child. So on that basis it wouldn't be eliminated by natural selection:
http://www.imaginis.com/breasthealth/statistics.asp#2
The same applies to diabetes:
http://statehealthfacts.org/compareb...22&yr=60&typ=1
There aren't many hereditary conditions I can think of which affect statistically significant numbers of people which would be likely to disappear by natural selection. One example would be haemophilia - typically only affects males, but is carried by the female, so it could linger on pretty much forever despite being potentially fatal from a young age.