Legs Are Overrated

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It’s a long-held stereotype (and still exists today) that disability is unnatural in people and so must be fixed or cured. 

The first commenter provides the logical conclusion:

Stop that medical research now! Helping people walk again is an insult to their dignity!

Comments

[Classical Liberal]

Yes, it is a stereotype that disability is regrettable--a perfectly true and valid stereotype!

Sheesh!

[Laura(southernxyl)]

There is just a little bit to it, though. I've read some stuff and I kind of see where they're coming from although as a whole I disagree.

People who are in fact dependent upon wheelchairs, or who have other disabilities, report hearing strangers making remarks like "I couldn't live like that" or "if that happened to me, just shoot me." There's an attitude that if a disability can't be fixed, then the disabled person's life is not worth living. See Terri Schiavo, or mothers of babies with Down syndrome who are asked, over and over, why they didn't abort. I think the idea that disabilities don't have to be fixed is a push-back: that the disabled person has value, as-is. Honestly, while I say I don't agree with the idea that disabilities shouldn't be fixed wherever possible and that the worst thing about them is the societal view of them as negative, I can't say that I would feel the way I do if I lived that life every day.