Evil in self-medication (Fleming)
October 18th, 2007 | Published in Biology, Health, Morality, Quotes, Science
The greatest possibility of evil in self-medication is the use of too-small doses, so that, instead of clearing up the infection, the microbes are educated to resist penicillin and a host of penicillin-fast organisms is bred out which can be passed on to other individuals and perhaps from there to others until they reach someone who … penicillin cannot save.
In such a case the thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who finally succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism. I hope this evil can be averted.
–Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), the discoverer of penicillin. Quoted in Carl Zimmer, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, p. 215