3 ms·
> You think it's a good think that the majority of women were resorting to a drug to cope with a normal healthy body function? That's what I've always thought
by zeveb 11y ago
> You think it's a good think that the majority of women were resorting to a drug to cope with a normal healthy body function?
That's what I've always thought was so odd about the complaint that erectile dysfunction are typically covered by health insurance but contraception may not be: the former fixes a broken body, while the other breaks a functioning one.
- golergka 11y ago"Fixed" and "broken" are defined how the person wants to use his body, not by natural order of things. Otherwise, reaching immortality could be viewed as "breaking" perfectly functioning death meachanism.
- zeveb 11y ago> "Fixed" and "broken" are defined how the person wants to use his body, not by natural order of things. That's an interesting idea, but one which I have to disagree with. A person who wishes to be an amputee does not have a broken body because he has two arms and two legs, nor is his body fixed by severing one or more of them; rather, he has healthy limbs and a broken brain or mind, which may be fixable with particular forms of therapy, or not, but certainly not by destroying his healthy limbs. > Otherwise, reaching immortality could be viewed as "breaking" perfectly functioning death mechanism. From what I know of how people age and die it appears that death is the failure and that immortality, were it achievable, is the proper state.
- golergka 11y agoInteresting discussion. What's the definition of "fixed" and "broken" you're implicitly using in your argument?
- mreiland 11y agostop worrying about definitions, it's a question of intent and life satisfaction for people. What category someone on the internet wants to file that under is irrelevant.
- golergka 11y agoI don't really care about practical implications of such discussion. On the contrary, these definitions seem to be an interesting philosophical topic.
- zeveb 11y ago> What's the definition of "fixed" and "broken" you're implicitly using in your argument? Functionally according to its function. One's digestive organs are meant to digest; one's reproductive organs are meant to reproduce. Reproductive organs which can't reproduce are broken: fixing ones which are broken is indeed healthcare, while breaking ones which are fully-functioning is an elective procedure.
- golergka 11y agoBut "function" only exists for something that was created by intellectual being with a goal in mind. How can you define "function" for something that evolved naturally?
- zeveb 11y ago> But "function" only exists for something that was created by intellectual being with a goal in mind. That doesn't bother me, since I think it's pretty obvious that there must be a prime mover of some sort. > How can you define "function" for something that evolved naturally? What it does. A kidney filters blood (and performs some other functions as well): a kidney which doesn't filter blood is obviously unhealthy. A heart pumps blood: a heart which fails to pump blood is obviously unhealthy. Gonads produce reproductive cells and introduce them to sexual partners: a set of gonads which don't produce such cells, or fail to introduce them to sexual partners, is obviously unhealthy. At a higher level, an organism is a mechanism for propagating genes. An organism which propagates its genes fulfills its function; one which does not fails to fulfill its function (note that ensuring the propagation of one's relatives' similar genes can count as a partial fulfillment at least).