From: "Jerald Hellemeyer" <bippie-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: re: Disability and anarchism (was Re: baby food)
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 17:10:40 CST




Brian writes:

>I have Crohn's Disease which effects the 
>gastrointestinal tract.  So far, I've had my colon removed and have had 
many 
>of my vertabrae fractured due to medication for the Crohn's 
(prednisone). 

I had a friend who had that.  I didn't realize it could get so serious.  
Or that the medication could have an effect on the bones.  It is 
something you will have for the rest of your life, right?  Will it get 
worse, or will it stabilize.  My friend was in the hospital for it for a 
while.  And he was supposed to watch what he ate.  He didn't, but was 
supposed to.

 
>I'm somewhat stooped now but without pain.

Fortunately, this hasn't had too much of an effect on my appearance.  It 
just looks like I have stiff neck (but feels much worse).   I do have a 
very thin neck though.  About 13-14 inches around.  The surgery 
destroyed most of the muscles in my neck.  People keep telling me I 
should be a drag queen because I have such a dainty neck. *l*

>Anyway, without medical intervention and help from family and friends I 
would 
>have died.  Now Crohn's has a genetic basis, they believe, so my dying 
would 
>have ensured a cleaner gene pool.  However, that just doesn't matter to 
me 
>when weighed against my own survival.  That's the way it is for most 
humans.

I don't think most of us would still be alive today without modern 
medicine.  Vaccines, appendectomies, germ theory, snake bite serum, 
c-sections, etc. have saved most of us from a rather nasty death.  And 
if society did not instinctively desire to take care of those in need, 
medicine probably would not exist.  After all, if we as a society 
believed in survival of the fittest individual and instinctively let the 
infirm die, we would have no need or desire for medicine.

Jerald
  


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