Circumstance

CIRCUMSTANCE S. W. BECKER, JR., M.D.* Scientific journals today contain many excellent articles proving, with various types ofrefined mathematics, that increased radiation is harming the human race. One cannot doubt that certain individuals are suffering organic damage, and no one condones the indiscriminate release ofharmful radiation into the atmosphere. However, any statement regarding injury to the race as a whole implies vast knowledge ofthe future. Once the highest form ofanimal life lived in the sea, a dense, buoyant, protective environment infinitely better than the thin, radiation-filled, relatively harsh atmosphere above. Still, certain forms oflife were moved by circumstances and eventually established themselves upon the land. Now the human species stands safely within an ocean ofair and gazes upward into the thin, radiation-filled, relatively harsh environment of outer space. It is as unfitted for this region as are fish for the land. Circumstances have released the potent force ofradiation, which will certainly affect the human race. To attempt to evaluate the final result today seems premature. It is unwise to point to any organism and say that this represents ultimate biologic perfection. For once a fish walked on the land—and a man may walk on the stars. They abide this day according to thine ordinances; For all things are thy servants [Ps. 119:91]. * The Whiting Clinic, 1900 Indianapolis Boulevard, Whiting, Indiana. 402 S. W. Becker, Jr. · Circumstance Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1959 ...