lamoran{at}bioinfo.med.utoronto.ca (Larry Moran) wrote in news:ce4oh9$1mim$1
{at}darwin.ediacara.org:

> On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 15:10:27 +0000 (UTC), 
> castrated pig  wrote:
>> Strider  wrote in message 
>> news:...
>> 
>>> Surely there must be on going studies in the evolution of humans and 
>>> I was wondering where they (and you) think this is taking us as a 
>>> species.
>> 
>> Evolution in humans is begining to stop - especially in MEDCs.  The
>> health service that we have is making us all live longer lives, and 
>> at least long enough to have children.  This removes 'natural 
>> selection'as we all have the same chance of passing on our genes.
> 
> One of the most important effects of natural selection is to PREVENT
> evolution. With recent developments in medicine, the evolution of
> Homo sapiens is now accelerating. In other words it is proceeding
> faster than it ever did in the past. Thus, the real effect of advances
> in health are the exact opposite of what "castrated pig" says. 

I would note that Larry's statement regarding natural selection  is not 
true in all cases, which may explain CP's belief.  Natural selection can 
hasten evolution when many more offspring are born than can survive - but 
this is not true for humans. For humans I agree with Larry - the health 
advances are allowing the survival of variation that could not otherwise be 
produced. 
 

Yours,

Bill Morse
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