Question 5: God? Are you there? It's me, again.

If a new medicine were developed that would cure arthritis but cause a fatal reaction in 1% of those who took it, would you want it to be released to the public?

The initial reaction to this post is that I am probably vastly under qualified to make this type of decision for the masses. Then again, we've had awful people as world leaders. So maybe I am the correct type of person to make this type of decision. Imagine a world where the government was run by (intelligent, wise) members of our society?

So back to the question- gosh, it is difficult parse out the inextricably linked facets of this problem.

OK. Lets break it down a bit.

These are the terms;

• Cure: a one and done deal. You take the medicine and BOOM. Done. You no longer have arthritis. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.
• Fatal reaction: Death. And likely a horrible one, because we all know the human body is one crap piece of machinery. 
• Those who took it: they KNOW the risk. they understand it. 

This is what I have a problem with: is it sufficient to just let people sign off their rights in case something bad happens? We all do it, right? whenever we sign paperwork for a new car, a new house, whatever. So why is it so scary when it comes to this? Oh I don't know, maybe because it is literally a life-or-death situation?

So if we had 100 arthritic patients, we would assume that 99 of them would live out their lives and then one would die. If we compare this to other common statistics, we would be able to see that these are quite good odds.  The issue at hand is the grand scale that we're talking about.  1% of all of the humans on earth is a very large number.  Even though 1% seems like a small number, 1% of the large value is quite significant. 

Lets expand this to the population of the world, according to google.

7,700,000,000 × 0.01 = 77,000,000Seventy-seven MILLION. wow.

Now of course I understand that the whole world is not afflicted with arthritis, but I wanted to make it more relatable to you. What if the case was applied to EVERYONE? even you. Everyone could have the possibility of no physical ailments. What a world that would be.

Would you still allow it? Would you take that risk yourself?

To be perfectly honest- I would totally allow it. (but no one had better come crying if someone drops dead on the spot. There is no reward without risk!)

But I have to lay out some conditions for this; you should REALLY know what youre getting yourself into. Because the obvious risk is that you could literally drop dead. OR you could be totally free of physical sickness! ( now if only we could get something to help out with the mental health that would be splendid)

I really have to sit back and think- what gives me the right to say that THIS is ok to release to the general public? Nothing. Absolutely nothing gives me the right. But you know, I do think that it is worthwhile to understand that this could open up a great living reality for those that take the chance at this. Seriously- imagine that. 99% of people would be cured would come out cured, and 1% would die.

Low key, thats probably better than marriage rates across the decades. So why are we so likely to risk our hearts but not our health when it comes to this game of numbers? Maybe its the case that we know for sure we only get once good chance at life, and for the lucky few that come back after being labeled dead by a doctor- twice.

Lets take that chance knowing and understanding the risk, because there is such possible reward!