Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 17:43:50 -0700
From: Arel Lucas <arel@pacbell.net>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: The sex-death continuum
As someone who did medical transcription for 11 years, I can't help but
interject into this discussion a note of reality that has been reinforced
these last 15 years with unfortunate force: where sexually transmitted
disease (STD) is concerned, sex *has* meant death and still can.
Whereas the cause of most diseases (microorganisms) was not understood
until relatively recently, evolutionarily speaking, everyone knew where
"the pox" came from. Europe and the Americas are still arguing over who
gave whom what in the 17th century, but everybody knew what they did to
get it! Venereal disease was probably the first disease that people knew
didn't come from God . . . except indirectly . . . Remember that even
syphilis killed, causing organic brain damage before it did.
Arel
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