Tag Archives: Biology

June 7 2020: Systemic Heart Failure

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I have my doubts about how this one turned out but the subject matter has been weighing on me since yesterday when an emergency patient came into the animal clinic I work at. She was expanding like the blueberry girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We tapped her like a keg and drained about 4 liters of fluids out over an hour and a half, during which time the vet reviewed her records and explained heart failure to me. I haven’t been able to get out of my head how delicate the whole system of our bodies is. One piece stops working right and everything compounds to come back around and make that one problem worse.

Food for thought: is the system that makes our society so different?

Day 25: Human Art

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I read a fascinating article the other day about a scientist in trouble in China for editing several embryos so that the children were immune to HIV. A brought this article up to an acquaintance who was shocked that the man was not in trouble simply for the fact that he had genetically modified human children (one set of twins has already been born) but because China has a strict policy against allowing carriers of HIV to have children. In his words, the man was tampering with God’s design. I have my own opinions on genetic manipulation and I have a hard time seeing it as “evil.” Thanks to this scientist there are now at least two people in the world who will NEVER have to suffer HIV. To me, that speaks of blessing, not blasphemy.

It does raise questions though. How long before genetic alterations become common place? How will we use this new technology? How will we abuse it? It’s coming one way or another.

Human Art