There is also a very fascinating question about artificially changing evolution with modern medicine. With our C-section rate of 30%, presumably a number of those deliveries would have been unsuccessful and ended in maternal or fetal demise without intervention. Likewise, we have amazing interventions for premature infants: the neonatal intensive care unit, incubators, intubation, betamethasone for lung maturation. We can also keep many people with previously fatal genetic diseases alive longer. With modern technology, we are able to support those who would have previously died. And in doing so, if they mature to reproductive age, we are altering the substrate upon which evolution acts.
Genes that were once detrimental because they lead to a fatal genetic defect, premature birth, or inability to allow a normal spontaneous vaginal delivery can now be supported and maintained. How will this change the evolutionary trajectory of humankind? Even other advances like assisted reproductive technology put different pressures on the genetic pool than those for the last thousand years. Is this a significant change? And where will it lead?
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