Soc 490: Can we control our health?

When looking at any person, you could say "oh they got sick because they didn't take care of themselves," but many times you have to look deeper into their story. Many of us really don't have full control of our health.

First sometimes you have no choice when you encounter a disease. For example when you are born with a disease and they diagnose it at birth such as cystic fibrosis. The children and many times the parents don't know until the child is born that they will encounter this lifelong disease. Similar to down syndrome where you are born with it and there isn't anything you could do to change the outcome.

There are also other diseases in which some encounter at different points in their life such as breast cancer and juvenile diabetes. These are also diseases which are not caused by any certain lifestyle, just born into your genes that some people in the family get and others do not.

Goodman states "These differences are thought to reflect such lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise, and smoking."While there are some arguments that one could use for the lifestyle people choose such as smoking and drinking which can cause different cancers and diseases within the organs. But there are also people who are very healthy, exercise regularly and have a healthy diet who can have a deadly heart attack.

In life, our health is a game of chance. We can live very healthy lifestyles and still get sick. We can also not take care of ourselves and never get sick. Gaudium says "Citizens, on the other hand, should remember that it is their right and duty, which is also recognized by the civil authority, to contribute to the true progress of their own community according to their ability." It is all in the cards we are dealt and nothing is fair, that's why helping those who got dealt a bad hand would be helpful for the whole of our society.