“Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.” ~Paracelsus
Life is truly something amazing. I’ve talked about this in the past, but every time I think of it, it completely blows my mind. I heard from a professor last semester who works in the Action Lab* on campus studying movement and how we learn. It really is remarkable how we do what we do, how God formed our bodies, equipped for remarkable things. Last week I visited said lab on a tour with local high school students. It was so cool, seeing it in action. I saw a 128 electrode ECG hooked up to somebody’s brain! That’s the kind of stuff you see in science fiction films, or science labs. Anyway, when you break it down, walking with a cup of coffee without spilling becomes very difficult. The amount of information your brain gathers, processes, and responds to every instant that allows you to go through those motions is incredible. Think about learning how to do that as a kid, sloshing orange juice all over yourself. Now go beyond the cup of coffee and think about all that we know how to do, and beyond that, how we know how to do it all. God has formed us capable of extraordinary things.
So on the topic of life, this came up in my Environmental Ethics class last semester: synthetic life. Essentially it is “life” or something that is by definition “alive,” that has been synthesized from scratch in a lab. This poses huge potential benefits in the medical field, when all of a sudden you can just grow the organ** you need. But I’m getting ahead of myself. So scientists are proposing that we can now “build” organisms by creating new genomes out of DNA nucleotides. And as with just about all advances in science, the ethics are being highly questioned (hence the reason this came up in my ethic class). I would just like to point out, before we get too deep into this, that at one point organ donation was controversial, in vitro fertilization was controversial (and to some extent still is), stem cell research is controversial, etc. But as time passes, more people generally come to terms with the new idea, whatever it may be, and eventually the once crazy idea has now become standard practice. I’m not saying that this is where synthetic life is going, just that it is something to consider.
So, synthetic life. You’ve got to admit, it’s pretty cool. I mean we can take atoms, make molecules, combine those molecules and get something that’s alive! Well… sorta. Here is where it gets tricky, what does it mean for something to be “alive?” We could go back to my 8th grade definition life: for something to be alive it must 1) reproduce***, 2) obtain and use energy, 3) grow, develop, and die, and 4) respond to the environment. There are multiple other sources that try to define the thing that requires no definition at all (I was quite surprised by the amount of information I got when I Googled “Definition of Life”). To me this says, “we don’t know.” Or more accurately, the definition of life is blurred, ambiguous. The debate over what constitutes life is not a new phenomenon. Viruses are perpetually caught in the middle of the “living” and “nonliving,” lacking the capabilities to reproduce without the assistance of a host cell. Just how far back must we travel towards primordial soup**** before we encounter a being that we can define as “alive?” Where do we cross the line? Organic molecules***** are most definitely not alive, they are however the building blocks from which all life made. Its incredible how life is created from elements that are inherently not alive. So what makes something living?
Hold that thought. I’m going to sidetrack here a little and highlight a discussion topic in my health policy class: end of life care. Yesterday I watched a Frontline episode outlining the difficulties and challenges we face in a health care system that delivers some of the best healthcare known to mankind. We have the technology to support and sustain any and every bodily system. Essentially, we can keep a person “alive” by supporting the systems even when they can no longer support themselves. We can keep a heart beating, we can keep the lungs breathing, and we can keep the kidneys functioning. Many times this technology is used to stabilize a person, get them better, and get them out of the hospital, which is fantastic! We have the technology to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives. Live being the key word there.
Today, more people die in hospitals than anywhere else. It didn’t used to be that way, but times have changed. We’re finding ourselves faced with a health care crisis, with costs skyrocketing and availability of care decreasing despite huge advances in the medical treatment of illness. When a person goes to a hospital with their time near at hand, the inevitable is prolonged, not prevented. Nobody wants to die, nobody wants anyone else to die, but dying is a part of life******. The Frontline episode brought us in to the stories of dying patients and their families. Each patient was given care to help them live, even if that care wasn’t going to work. 30% of all health care is “waste,” meaning the patient dies anyway. Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t try save the patient, but there are times when doing nothing really is the best option. In the US 100,000 people are chronically critically ill and $20-$25 billion dollars is spent annually to care for those people. I asked myself, is that how I want to spend my last years? No. But that’s easy to say now; it’s a lot harder to say when I’m in the situation. For each of the Frontline stories, I tried to put myself in their shoes. The woman was suddenly my mother, the man, my father. No, I don’t want them to die. It’s hard, really hard. But I know that I wouldn’t want them supported by machines for years, “alive” but not living. It’s just too painful to watch. Here is where Paracelsus comes in; this is the art of modern medicine.
Ok back to the main question. What makes something alive? Well, shoot. I don’t know. I would guess though that it is more then the capability to reproduce, grow, and behave. It is something else. Something special. Something only God can give.
One of the main criticisms for this synthetic life idea is that we are “playing God.” And that is not OK. I can understand where they are coming from. God didn’t intend for that creature to walk the earth, so we have no right in creating it. One of the reasons I love biology is because it provides me with opportunities to see God working. Could God be working through us, to create new forms of life? I don’t know, but maybe.
I am alive because God created me, formed me, and loved me. Because God is creating me, forming me, and loving me. Maybe what we can (or will be able to) create in a lab is alive by our human definitions, maybe it is not. Perhaps we shouldn’t try to classify each particle of the world and beyond into neat little boxes like we like to do so much. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Our need for structure and organization is infinitesimally small in the grand scheme of things.
I’m not really concluding anything in this lengthy and somewhat rambling post, other than the understanding that life is full of wonder, complexity, and beauty. Life is full of questions, many of which will remain unanswered. Above all else, life is something that should be respected and cared for under all circumstances, because ultimately, life is a gift from God.
*Mom, you would like this.
**They can’t grow organs, don’t anybody freak out now. Muscle tissue has been synthesized, but not like the kind of muscle you have in your body. This “muscle” is more like a blob of phlegm someone coughed up into a puddle, all slimy and globular. They have attempted to “work” the muscle (the equivalent of you dragging yourself to the gym) using electric pulses, but so far those attempts have been largely unsuccessful.
***So if you never reproduce… You are not alive! *gasp* obviously not true.
****Side note, where on Earth did we come up with that phrase?
*****What is so special about carbon anyway?
******It must be remember? It was one of the qualifications.
