The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic StudiesMetchnikoff, Elie
Science
The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies
Metchnikoff, Elie
Aging; Hygiene; Longevity; Older people -- Social conditions
In the question of the prevention of syphilis, the moral problem is
still more easy to settle. Whilst in the case of vivisection a real
suffering may be inflicted upon animals, in preventive measures against
syphilis, the evil is more or less intricate and very problematic.
The certainty of safety from this disease might render extra-conjugal
relations more frequent, but if we compare the evil which might come
from that with the immense benefit gained in preventing so many
innocent persons from becoming diseased, it is easy to see to which
side the scale dips. The indignation of those who protest against the
discovery of preventive measures can never either arrest the zeal of
the investigators or hinder the use of the measures. This example
again shows that reasoning is necessary in the solution of most moral
questions.
However, the problems which arise in actual life are often very much
more complicated than the two cases I have taken as an introduction.
It is easy to prove the high utility of the work of vivisectors and
of those who are seeking means of preventing syphilis, whilst their
adversaries have nothing to invoke but their feelings. The situation is
quite different in many questions which border on morality. The sexual
life abounds in extremely difficult problems, in which it is almost
impossible to determine what is right. Let me recall the vagaries
in the life of Goethe, whose great genius was so often in conflict
with the morality of his time. Was he wrong in giving up Frederique
and Lili from the fear that a permanent bond would damage his poetic
productivity? Then there is the moral question of the marriage of
men affected with syphilis, or other diseases which might influence
the offspring. The problems of the continence of young people before
marriage, of prostitution and of means of preventing conception are
without doubt questions of great importance, the solution of which is
extremely difficult from the point of view of morality. Differences of
opinion are revealed in nearly everything relating to punishment. The
question of the death penalty is much in dispute and requires numerous
investigations of different kinds. Statistics have been collected to
give information as to the utility or inutility of the death penalty.
According to some results, capital punishment does not diminish the
number of crimes, whilst according to others it has a real preventive
effect. Punishments less violent than death, and particularly the
punishments of children, are equally troublesome, and schoolmasters
have difficulty in finding a solution.
The utilitarian theory of morality often finds it impossible to prove
the advantage of the conduct it prescribes, and this the more because
in many cases we do not exactly know who is to profit by it. Is the
utility of any particular act to be considered so far as it affects
relatives, members of the same religion, of the same country, or of the
same race, or all humanity?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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