Originally posted by Informer:
The ability to completely circle one's wrist with one's thumb and index(?) finger has been associated with sudden cardiac death. Phrenology like?
No disrespect intended, but it seems like humans have a great desire/need to assign causes to effects, after which they pat themselves on the back and trot off, blithely assuming they have solved the problem when the real cause is totally obscured. For example, in Colonial America, they were all too ready to blame poor widow women for the ills of their children when in fact it was because there were ergot sclerotia in the grain from which they made their bread. And I'm sure there are many, countless other examples where people have been maimed or killed and later found to be innocent, that one just came readily to mind.
If the wrist thing you say is true, what is the underlying cause of them both? What is the genetic marker, what is the incubation condition, which gives rise to these two events simultaneously? Logic says one cannot cause the other. What survival advantage or neutral disadvantage does it confer upon the individual? Sickle cell trait confers immunity to malaria in the case of a single allele, yet causes Sickle Cell Anemia when two are present. What is this gene that makes people have long fingers and sensitive hearts? What's it doing in the human genome elsewhere that's helped us survive?
And to what use will this information be put? "I'm sorry, Mr. Rostopovich, but your finger and thumb circle your wrist, so we can't write you an insurance policy. Too risky." Or, "Mr. Johnson, I afraid we can't hire you as an over the road truck driver, because your physical shows that you have this characteristic that indicates you have a high risk of dropping dead suddenly, and we can't afford that."
Or, imagine pre-marital advice: prospective mates surreptitiously studying their partner's hands, calculating the odds of ending up a rich widow or widower.
I'm not a great fan of fortune telling, and I'm afraid that's more or less the use to which I think some people would put this sort of information. You see, I was told I would not live to be 21, and I'm 47 and have no intentions of giving up the lease any time soon. But if I'd realized I WAS going to live this long I'd have tried to take a little bit better care of the chassis!
