Forewarning: This is sad

Over the past couple weeks I've come across a lot of people who have had someone close to them pass away. The one that stuck with me the most is a friend that is so close to me I consider him a brother. He is one of the sweetest, most genuine persons that I have ever met but life has never dealt him a good hand. He grew up in a family of abuse and a few years ago his father could not take his mothers alcoholism so he moved out. This left the burden on my friend to take care of his mother who eventually turned to alcoholism himself. Over the summer he decided he needed to turn over a new leaf so he was admitted into a rehab for 73 days and to prevent a relapse when he got out he moved in with his father who lives an hour away from his mothers home. Last week his father went to check in on his mother, that no one has heard from in about 2 months, and he found her dead inside her house and 2 of her pet cats starved to death from being alone for so long. This of course had a devastating effect on my friend who I've come to discover since this tragic event has started drinking hand sanitizer in his powerade to feed his addiction since he can not afford alcohol. So for this week I wanted to discuss alcoholism and it's effect on not only the alcoholic but also the people who surround them.
Alcoholism is a deadly disease that effects over 17 million American adults. It leads people to turn into someone thats not true to their real character when they are sober. Unfortunately my friend is not the first person close to me that has dealt with addiction and it leads even the most truthful person to produce lies to cover up their pain. I spoke with him just a few days ago and he told me he's been doing very well and thinks things are turning around for him but the next day he left a powerade bottle at a mutual friends house and that friend said he could smell the hand sanitizer in the drink. It's extremely heart breaking to not only me but the other people close to him. We all watch as the amazingly brilliant person we know slowly deteriorates into a shell of a human being. Over the past 5 years that I've known him I watched him go from a healthy pharmacy student to an underweight mal-nutritioned skeleton. He is a few inches taller than me but his weight is probably somewhat similar to my own. He substitutes his normal daily meals with alcohol to cover up the pain from his past.
If you know anyone with this problem they can visit AA meetings or the website listed.

hmmm.

I was looking around for interesting articles for this blog today and I came across this article. It has to do a lot with my past posts relating to my egg donations. A new test has been discovered that can detect chromosomal abnormalities in embryos before they are implanted which cause up to 70% of pregnancies not lasting full term. What this test does is examines the cells that eventually will become the babies placenta therefor not causing harm to the developing embryo. This could as much as triple the success rates of IVF cycles and could completely turn the field on its head.
Many women suffer from infertility whether it be from cancer or ovarian failure and often turn to IVF after failed attempts with prescription drug interventions for those that still are cycling. This procedure allows women to have children who thought that this dream had once gone out the window. If this new test can improve the success rates then a lot more women will be able to hold onto their dream. It does make me think though about what other effects this could have on other things in the world. Like a butterfly effect. I mean often when these women can't have children they turn to adoption.
If success rates of IVF cycles improve, will adoption rates decrease? And if so there will be even more children in the world waiting for a loving family. I'm not downplaying the amazing capabilities this new test may bring about but it just makes me wonder if every action has an equal reaction what could this mean for the world?