Stay Disabled Despite a Cure?

I used to be friends with two girls who had cerebral palsy. They were in wheelchairs 90% of the time. While they could move and feel their legs and arms, their limbs didn't work so well. They couldn't walk on their own, and they could barely eat on their own. They, of course, knew other disabled people, who I ended up meeting, and among these was a blind girl (who was legally blind but could see a little, which fucked with my head). In some conversation, my two friends and the blind chick all said that if a cure for cerebral palsy or blindness came out, they would not take it. They wouldn't be against the cure itself, and they would want it to be given to any babies that were born disabled, but they wouldn't take it themselves. Their disability was part of their identities, they said. They had lived 20+ years as disabled people, and they couldn't imagine life any other way.

To me, that makes some sense, but in the end, it's a bunch of bullshit.

This might sound familiar to any fans of Scrubs or House, as both series have had episodes where a disabled person refused to have his/her disability fixed. In both shows, the character was deaf and not in a wheelchair or blind, but same difference. The character refused to have the disability taken away at first but eventually decided to have it treated. After all, why would you choose to live handicapped? It may be part of your identity, but you can always create a new identity. It happens all the time. People who were fat all their lives lose weight and become thin. People who always slacked off start to work hard and become successful. Sure, learning to use your legs when you never have or seeing when you never have is a bit different, but it's still possible to change.

Thoughts, opinions? If you were blind from birth (or had any other disability), and there was a cure, would you take it? If you had a friend who was disabled, and there was a readily-available cure, and your friend wouldn't take it, how would you react? What if your friend could die significantly earlier due to his disability, and he still refused to take the cure?

If i was born normal and i suddenly had a handicapped for a while i would probally take the easy way out and take the treatment, but if i was born with the disabilities, i would probally decline as i lived my entire life the way i was born and i suppose my pride would be a big consideration.

but then again i won't even imagine what it would be like to be born with a disablility saying from a peson who takes all his5 sense for granted.

Hope it helps, and btw where those girls born like that?

if i'm the same me, just plus some handicaps, then i'll take the cure. even if i was born with that handicap. being not disabled is always better, and i don't see anything that would hurt my pride if i take it. if i have a friend which refuse to take the cure...hmm...i'll do my best to convince him to take it. perhaps, i'll even force it upon him but then again, maybe not. but i'll bug him til he give up and take the cure....

Keep in mind that disabilities really do gruesome stuff to your psyche; you basically go through a lot of isolation (or at least the feeling of isolation) due to your being different from everyone else around you. Then there's the issue of self-esteem, and whatnot. All that leaves its traces, and in the end, disabled people will often have found a way to live with their disability and as they told you:

It's cruel, but it's true: Their disability becomes a part of them, even as a source of a twisted sense of pride (due to being able to live their life despite being disabled), or as something certain and constant to hold on to. And then the thought of surrendering that scares them. I can understand that completely.

If I was born handicapped, I don't know if I'd take the cure. From today's standpoint as a healthy individual, I would. But if I was disabled from birth, then I might have gone down the path outlined above, and decide differently.

If I got crippled while having been healthy before, the question wouldn't come up in the first place. I'd just off myself, no questions asked.

Well, just about everything that needed to be said on the subject HAS been said, so I'll stick to answering the question posed in the title. As a proud, whiny little bitch, being disabled would definitely enable me to bitch and complain rightfully. However, I find that too many people rely on my physical capabilities, and therapy skills, and ending up disabled would render me useless physically and mentally, since I'm so proud of me. So, the end result is me rolling off a cliff on my wheelchair, or crutches, or other. But hey, none of that HAS happened to any of us so let's just smile and praise our lucky stars that we're still fully functional! :D

I guess it would depend on the risk. You have to take into account that it is possible that the operation could result in a worsened condition or even death oh my! Even today all operations and medications have complications and could result in some problems.

But with no or minimal risk I would do it without a second thought. I thought I'd add my opinion on a similar matter being if the risk was 0 then I would say that the disabled person should have to take it or lose there privileges. I say this because they would still use tax payer dollars to live their life even know they could live without it. But if there was even a chance of a problem even 1% then it remains like it is.

Well, I'm disabled for all my life. I'm deaf, I could get rid of it through cochlear surgery something. But, I really really dislike surgery, so it stops me quite easily. However, if there was some kind of healing magic I'd go and see the wizard in an instant and get rid of my deafiness.

I dislike having myself cut open <.<

your PRIDE? What possible pride can you have out of being disabled? that sounds like a load to me.

If you refuse to take the treatment, then look at it from a practical point of view, as opposed to a pride/identity issue. If you can't move, then you can't excercise. Excercise is good, and if you don't have it, you have to monitor your diets extremely carefully. If you are blind, wouldn't it be very helpful for you to be able to learn to drive? If you are deaf, wouldn't it be nice to be able to listen to music? That's how I look at it.

discard your pride, learn to be pragmatic.

As a person expecting to go deaf in the next twenty years, I am praying for some cure, lest I don that white shirt and jockey paper rather than nozzles and chainsaws.
(Blue shirt=fireman White shirt=Chief)

I don't have a context for bieng born with a disability, but I couldn't see people with degenerative ones complaining. People with dystrophy, later onset blindness, diabetes, or deafness probably remember what having this ability was like, and while it would be another giant transition, I would take the cure--but keep the experience that comes from facing this adversity.


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Side notes:
Is there another way to prevent deafness, or should I start wearing earplugs to concerts?

Sorry for bieng so goddamn incoherent, I'm just trying to catch up from sleeping 3-6 hours every night for the last two weeks.

uwah...expecting to be deaf? that's harsh....i guess you should really take care of your ear from now on....

i haven't go to any concert exactly because i don't want these things to happen so i won't know, but i guess you should try the earplugs...

but, won't it spoil the fun of a concert?

horse shit, all three of them are liars... It's simply something they're saying now because they want to seem proud of their disability... Having any disease or disability isn't an identity, I'm not diabetes, nor am I defined by it... To be able to adapt and evolve into something more is where real courage lies... Sorry if I've repeated any points, It was early and I didn't feel like reading everything said, I will when I wake.

Just like people mentioned earlier, it all comes down to whether you experienced a 'normal' life in the past or were born with said disability (or at least had it long enough for the past memories to fade away). Honestly, it's very hard for me to imagine a young person refusing the gift of a long unrestricted life but then again, I know little to shit about how much such things impact your way of thinking (a wasted ankle hardly counts).

It'd be a somewhat different subject with older people since it's more common for them to value the lack of intervention in their daily routine higher than any upgrades to it.
A highly religious person could also treat a said disability as God's will and grow accustomed to it. As dense as that may seem, such people are sometimes able to withstand unbelievable hindrances with a smile.

The man I am today would definitely grab a cure for his hypothetical disability if a chance presented itself but would probably(/eventually) respect the will a close person choosing otherwise for himself.

If they got cured and live normal, they will seem dumb as they will have hard time for being recently disabled, then loosers might take advantage of it to pass attention of shame on them. Unlike when they're disabled, they had excuse to be below normal.

IMO, the only idea I can think of is, say that she's recently disabled then assist her when having trouble, it will look like a romance fiction and something to be jealous at, except if shes ugly.

I remember watching a documentary about a family who were mostly born deaf, and how they lived in a mostly deaf community. It centered around the mother and grandmother (not deaf) considering having the five-year-old daughter undergo some minor surgery to put an implant in her ear to bring her hearing ability closer to that of a normal individual. It also showed how people who lived being deaf tend to center their social identity around it. Additionally, it demonstrated the unfortunate reality that people born deaf don't usually have the best education. Most of the deaf people in the documentary felt that if the daughter underwent the surgery, she would both not be a part of the community and that she would "become like a robot" (not joking here).

Now~now, artificial stuff is different, me, actually feel depressed on my circumcision or I'll never bother with tattoos as I can never be fully me with those.

i do not know about people with disabilities as i am one of those lucky individual to be born with normal limbs and normal 5 senses. So i cannot give much of an opinion in here but even having said that, i think what they want to do is ultimately up to them. In the first place, it is not our problem so there is no way or no right for us to interfere with their decision. They have their own feelings to consider even if we want to say anything there is no point at all if they forced on the cure. If they want to stay as they are then i say let them, after all, it is their life to live and not ours. Lives should be lived as the individual sees it.

while i do agree everyone's life is ultimately their own...i do think there should be a limit in letting whatever they want with their life...

i mean, most of us will prevent anyone from committing suicide, right? it's the same thing...

plus...all we're doing is just informing them of a possibility of leading a better life, and why they should lead the said better life...nothing wrong in that, right?

I agree that it's the same thing - people getting involved in things where they should have no say.
Of course, the suicidal should receive every bit of help they can get to find a way out of a tight spot that doesn't involve them killing themselves; but I always found it a smack-mouth in-your-face insult and downright perturbation of human dignity and individual freedom to prevent someone else's death against their own will.
Oh, I understand very well that we want to keep loved ones around forever, but sometimes you have to let go - especially when a person has decided that to them, death is the option with the least suffering possible.

So long as no one else gets injured, people should be free to do with their own body/life whatever they please.



concur. so long as you don't proselytize or force it upon them, nothing wrong with supplying information, methinks. in fact, helping people to make an informed choice is commendable.



Of course. But, I think it is not without merit for us to imagine what we'd do in their place and how their decisions came to pass, for that can only foster mutual understanding.

That's not a good enough reason to pass up being on being a regular person.

Yes i understand that you guys are putting yourselves in their shoes and saying you would want the cure but you also think from their point of view. They want to stay that way, so let them. The most we can do is give them advice or tell them what you think but if you just keep pestering them about it then you are just nosy not being "helpful". Even if you think you are helping them but they do not want or need the help. They want to stay that way then let them. Like i said, IT IS THEIR LIVES NOT OURS. We can imagine what it is like but we do not know for certain so let those who are in the condition to think for themselves and decide what they want to do.