Editorial

The theory of evolution was given by the British Scientist Charles Darwin in 1871. Though Rome was against it, there was no difficulty for Darwin to continue his studies unlike Galileo and other European scientists of the 15th century.

Indians by nature and philosophy have no problem to accept the principle of evolution. However, of late. We have started feeling whether every change can be attributed to evolution. Evolution is progress. Is it making a circular turn? We have to make a path correction, if it is true.

On the human side, the physical body has adapted and changed. Our intellect has taken up challenges and the scientists are marching from one marvellous invention to another, whether it is in technology, astrophysics, biology, medicine or nuclear science. In any branch of science, more progress has been made in the twentieth century than in the past five hundred years.

Even organs have been grown by tissue implantation. A child, not yet born had a defect in the leg which was diagnosed and corrected even before the child was born, according to a recent news. One could not have even imagined that this could be possible. Transplantation of organs also has made tremendous progress and this has become a common practice, although more innovations on transplanting portions are also being performed in India.

On the ethical side, is there a relapse in evolution? How can we explain the "organ harvesting" by hospitals in Britain without the pre-consent of the donors? Of course a dead man cannot give his consent or deny his consent. But if bodies from mortuaries are "harvested", is it not a sophisticated form of cannibalism? Even in India, patients who went to some hospitals for some treatment came back minus a kidney without their knowledge.

Any scientific activity has to be strictly within the limits of accepted ethics. It is not in our hands to control the evolution of nature. But there is at least something within our control. We can channel all our efforts towards a total evolution - evolution of the mind constantly working towards higher values, ethics and humanitarianism. Any retro-evolution could be dangerous for man.