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Could Colorblindness Cure Be Morally Wrong?

destinyland writes "One in 12 men suffers from colorblindness, though '[t]he good news here is that these folks are simply missing a patch of DNA ... which is just the kind of challenge this Millennium is made for. Enter science.' But NPR's Moira Gunn (from Biotech Nation) now asks a provocative question. Is it wrong to cure colorblindness? She reports on an experiment that used a virus to introduce corrective DNA into colorblind monkeys. ('It took 20 weeks, but eventually the monkeys started distinguishing between red and green.') Then she asks, could it be viewed differently? 'Are we trying to 'normalize' humans to a threshold of experience?'"

5 of 981 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WTF? Just ask the patient. by no1home · · Score: 0, Troll

    Wow... Your life just might suck more than mine! (jk)

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  2. Re:as an extreme red-green colorblind person... by girlintraining · · Score: 0, Troll

    I say "fuck you" to your moral objection.

    Funny, that's how they responded to freeing the slaves, women's sufferage, and the Prohibition, and those are just the things I can quote out of the Constitution.

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  3. Re:as an extreme red-green colorblind person... by Anaerin · · Score: 1, Troll

    I am also colourblind, and I say "fuck you" to your assertion. That the world I see has a little less green in it than the world others see (similar to 6% of the male populace) doesn't mean I have any problems in my day-to-day life. There is absolutely nothing I have encountered in life so far that required me to have different vision than what I have at the moment. Admittedly, when I choose clothing for myself, some of the choices I may make could be not quite so aesthetically pleasing to the rest of the world, and any artistic interpretations of the world that I make will certainly look a little strange to others, but none of those "issues" particularly affect my life.

    I say we certainly give people the option to "Cure" their atypical vision, just as we do for people with myopia and cataracts, but to call it a "disability" is going a little too far, IMHO.

  4. Re:WTF? Just ask the patient. by omfgnosis · · Score: 0, Troll

    The point is that all humans see a limited range of the light spectrum, and determining which range is healthful is a fool's errand.

  5. Re:WTF? Just ask the patient. by wtbname · · Score: 0, Troll

    Would you like to have that awful European spelling of color cured out of you? We can do it in a mere 20 weeks!