Science and charity: the
purpose of medicine and
the meaning of health
Richard Horton
The Lancet
December 12, 2014
“I think I have
found out the
simple way by
which species
become exquisitely
adapted to various
ends.”
“Man in the distant future will be a
far more perfect creature then he
now is.”
“And fast by hanging in a golden chain
This pendent world.”
Book ll, Paradise Lost
“I think the odds are
no better than 50/50
that our present
civilisation will
survive to the end of
the present century.”
Our Final Century (2003)
DOES HUMAN HEALTH
HAVE A FUTURE?
The Great Divergence
“Humanity’s escape
from death and
deprivation began
around 250 years
ago.”
PRECONDITIONS
Corruption
Incompetence
Insecurity
Degradation
Poverty
Invasion
ECONOMIC
DECLINE
Economic
Crisis
INITIAL
BREAKDOWN
Conflict
Privatisation
Disease
Decline
Depopulation
INSTABILITY
ADVANCED
BREAKDOWN
Fracture
Civil war
Social chaos
Famine
Fragmentation
COLLAPSE
RESILIENCE/
ADAPTATION
Vision
Solidarity
Transformation
STABILISATION
RECONSTITUTION
Recovery
Cultural memory
New Beliefs
RECONSTRUCTION
SUSTAINABILITY
RESILIENCE
Food
Security
Economic
Systems
Disease
Political
systems
CivilisationsExtreme
Events
Water
Population
Social
stability
Peace
Physical
Systems
Human
Systems
“See with what heat these dogs of hell
advance
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly of man
Let in these wasteful furies…”
John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book 10)
GLOBAL HEALTH
GLOBAL SCIENCE
GLOBAL SOCIETY
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY
GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY
GLOBAL IDENTITY
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