LIFE’S ENIGMA
K.V Satyanarayana, M.Sc
Late Sri K. V Satyanarayana Garu , was
a Retired Head of the department of Chemistry
, A.N.R. College , Gudivada, AndhraPradesh
***
Both the beginning and end of life-birth and
death-are mysterious events. What is
known even to a high school student is that fusion of the male and female cells
leads to fertilization and a beginning of new life. Both cells, to begin with, are simple and
single. The resultant entity—zygote as
the biologists call it—goes on dividing relentlessly into 2, 4, 8, 16 and so
on. How and why does this division
occur? More surprising and stunning is
that different tissues and organs—the brain, the face and its inhabitants, the
limbs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the genitals, the skeleton. The same type of cells at some appropriate
point of time, become prodigal and deviate from the original group. Who or what prompts and promotes the division
and diversification? The only plausible,
if not entirely convincing, explanation is that this property or propensity is
inherent in the original zygote, whatever that may mean.
To the biologist and biochemist there
is scope for technical explanation. The
DNA (deoxy ribo nucleic acid) , the fundamental life unit, carries different
constituents (nucleotides) along its helix-fashioned length ( their
tongue-twisting names, for the curious reader, are adenine, guanine, cytosine
and thymine).
Their arrangement is different in
different DNA units. And this difference
in the order (by virtue of innumerable permutations and combinations) is most
probably responsible for the differentiation of tissues and organs and their
functions. A simple analogy is
warranted. The letters A,E,R, can be
shuffled and jumbled into three entirely different words: ARE, EAR, ERA.
Growth and development of individuals
are a function of these mysterious ramifications: the brain cells “think”, the eye cells “see”,
the heart cells “beat”, the genital cells “perpetuate” the species. Not only the nature of these functions is
different from one another but the quality of the functions also varies vastly from individual to individual-
although, remember, the constituents of the brain cells of Gandhi are the same
as or similar to those of Godse.
A possible explanation, though not
entirely convincing is that, during an individual growth, nature (heredity) and
nurture (environment) play a pivotal role.
The
other extreme of life – death – is equally, if not more, perplexing than birth
and life. Until some fifty years ago the
boundary between life and death was the last breath and the last heartbeat. But the portable respirator whips the lungs
to breathe just as in life.
The
heart machine restores the heartbeat, the electrical pacemaker stimulates the
heart into action and the heart—lung machine regulates the circulation—essential
functions of life.
These technical wonders seem to
make everything hunky – dory except, of course, life, as we know it, is not
revived. Also, in some cases, the heart
and lung resume their function spontaneously (without the extraneous aids),
though the patient is not conscious – a “vegetative” state. This paradoxical state has led medical
experts to define actual death as “brain death”. The patient may go into coma. Coma, itself, is studied as reversible and
irreversible coma-redemption and non-redemption of life. A case was cited some years ago regarding
this transitional state between life and death.
A 21-year old woman in Montreal was unconscious (in coma) for as many as
12 years but “alive” till death finally ensued.
Irreversible coma is not that lucky.
And this condition is determined through EEG (electroencephalogram)
which, contrary to a wavy picture in a normal brain, is isoelectric (a flat
line). This picture enables doctors to
distinguish between reversible and irreversible coma and to decide whether the
patient can or cannot be resuscitated to normal life.
Our searching question is: Why do the vital organs fail to perform their
ordained functions? Is it not
paradoxical that even some efficient cardiologists die due to cardiac
illness? As in birth, who or what impels
the cessation of the functions of the vital organs, culminating in death?
A philosopher or theologian can
satisfy himself and some others by interpreting the mystery of life and death
as divine ordainment. Since it is quite
rational and logical to assume a cause for an effect, the question
automatically arises: “Who or what precedes “divine ordainment” and what was
its precedent? This chain of questions
goes on ad infinitum. And this
eternal enigma flies in our face.
(1st
February 2012)
***************
No comments:
Post a Comment