P. -L. Chau - Emergent Medicine and the Law

This book is an attempt to explain how advances in medical science will impact on law. For each topic, we will give an account of the science and medicine before putting these discoveries in a legal context. This introductory chapter will provide some groundwork on concepts which will recur in the rest of the book.

This may sound obvious, but we shall attempt to be as logical as possible, and use as much evidence as possible to back up our claims. We would also like to emphasise the impact of evolution on humans throughout our book. The theory of evolution allows us to understand processes such as decision making; it also enables us to understand how medicine is affecting our future genetically and physiologically. We therefore start with a brief introduction to the theory of evolution.

Evolution is the theory which describes the change of living organisms over time, arising from changes in their genes, so that they become more adapted to their environments.

In science, when we say that a certain concept is a theory, it does not mean that it is only theoretical in the colloquial sense. Theory means a self-consistent concept, well supported by experimental findings. So when we say that evolution is a theory, it means it is a mature scientific framework. For those parts of science which are speculative, scientists would prefer the term conjecture or hypothesis.

Although ideas about changes in living organisms have been common from antiquity, it was Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace who put this on a scientific footing. Wallace published a preliminary form of an evolutionary theory in 1855 (Wallace ). Darwin wrote this book for the non-specialist, as he intended to write a more detailed treatise for the scientist. Unfortunately, he never found the time to write the treatise, so On the Origin of Species became the definitive account of the theory of evolution. It is unique amongst the scientific classics because it assumed no technical knowledge on the part of the reader, unlike Newtons Principia, James Clerk Maxwells A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism or Paul Diracs Principles of Quantum Mechanics, all of which require the reader to have a good grasp of mathematics. The logic of On the Origin of Species is rigorous, the argumentation extensive and the evidence compelling. Anyone willing to spend time and effort on this book will be able to understand it, and find it an intellectually rewarding experience.

In a very simplistic way, the theory of evolution starts from two axioms, both of which are strongly supported by experimental evidence. They are as follows:

We can infer that, when the environment changes, those variants of the living organisms which are more suited to the environment are more likely to survive. This process is known by the rather unfortunate name of natural selection, as if some agent is there to do the selection. The selection is performed by the environment, and those variants which are less suited are more likely to die. Over time, these variations accumulate, and new species arise.