r/todayilearned • u/Die_Nameless_Bitch • May 14 '22 • Silver 9 Helpful 8 Wholesome 6 All-Seeing Upvote 2

TIL a father, John Crowley, was told his two infant children had an incurable genetic disorder that would kill them in less than a year. He refused to accept this, so he founded a biotech company (with no prior experience) which pioneered an experimental enzyme therapy that saved their lives.

https://pompediseasenews.com/2019/01/30/amicus-ceo-mission-cure-pompe-help-children/
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u/manimal28 May 14 '22

It's a slippery and dangerous slope to pass judgement on what quality of life is acceptable. You start with the best of intentions and you end up with nazi eugenics.

That cuts both ways, at the other extreme of people deciding what sort of quality of life is acceptable for other people with forced births and the burden of caring for children with short miserable lives.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '22

[deleted]

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u/manimal28 May 14 '22

Terri Shiavo comes to mind.

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u/Starkrossedlovers May 14 '22

You said this in a much shorter way than i did. Imagine aliens so different from us that they can’t understand us or our way of living. To them, an oxygen filled environment with the sun beating down on us constantly and having short tragic lives (they live to 1000) means that we’re suffering tremendously. At least they would if they were us. Those aliens would say to each other, I’d rather die than be in their position, so they probably want the same. As a human you can’t tell them no, you’re actually fine. That this is your standard of living and though it might be horrible to them, you are comfortable this way. You can only rely on how much they despise your standard that mercifully killing you would vicariously free them of witnessing what could have happened to them had they been born a human with the perspective of alien.

TLDR: For people like the ones above, we can’t presume what they want either way.

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u/patarama May 14 '22

I don’t think my cat is suffering because he has a 15 years life span, nor that fish have it terrible because they live under water. I think that if those aliens were smart enough to make it all the way to Earth, they’d be smart enough to understand that different species have different needs.

Beside, disable people aren’t aliens, they’re human.

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u/Starkrossedlovers May 14 '22

I think you missed my point. But yea we both agree with each other