Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine
Publisher: Oxford University Press | ISBN: N\A | edition 2004 | CHM | 1003 pages | 19,4 mb

Death is Nature's master stroke, albeit a cruel one, because it allows genotypes space and opportunity to try on new phenotypes. The time comes in the life of any organ or person when it is better to start again from scratch rather than carry on with the weight and muddle of endless accretions. Our bodies and minds are these perishable phenotypes—the froth, which always turns to scum, on the wave of our genes. These genes are not really our genes. It is us who belong to them for a few decades. It is one of Nature's great insults that she should prefer to put all her eggs in the basket of a defenceless, incompetent neonate rather than in the tried and tested custody of our own superb minds. But as our neurofibrils begin to tangle, and that neonate walks to a wisdom that eludes us, we are forced to give Nature credit for her daring idea. Of course, Nature, in her careless way, can get it wrong: people often die in the wrong order (one of our chief roles is to prevent this mis-ordering of deaths, not the phenomenon of death itself).


Click Here To Download