[ExI] Human extinction

[David C. Harris]

MB wrote:
> I've heard that the C-section is now sometimes preferred as a way to avoid lawsuits.
> Bizarre.
>
> Regards,
> MB
>
>   
Avoiding lawsuits and dealing with the problem of birth times being 
unpredictable.  Obstetricians, like other doctors, expect to make 
hundreds of dollars an hour to pay for staff, building, etc. ---  and 
their salary.  Natural childbirth has a huge randomness in its timing.  
The OB's can avoid standing around often late at night, when babies seem 
to come naturally, if they use labor-inducing drugs like Pitocin 
(synthetic oxytocin) or cut the baby out in a C-section (aka Caesarean 
section, after Julius Caesar).  Midwives work with the natural timing, 
which reduces their births/month productivity.  And midwives have "scope 
of practice" rules that indicate when they should take a serious problem 
to medical institutions. 

The scheduling problem is similar to the time of death which makes 
cryonics transport teams spend a lot of time waiting for death to 
occur.  Both ends of life are hard to schedule, as are a lot of natural 
processes in between.   ;-)

  -David Harris