Medical Procedure pt 1

I am morally against cutting my arm off.  I like having two arms and find it very useful.  I realize that some people have needed to have limbs and other extremities amputated for various reasons.  I respect those people and admire them for the challenges they've over come to have a normal life. However, I have no personal interest in becoming one of them, as I'm sure they had no intention of becoming amputees either.

However, the fact that no one intentionally becomes an amputee, but there are amputees speaks to the necessity of amputation.  Severe injury and several diseases make it necessary to remove an extremity.  Necessity doesn't make a bad thing good, it only means it's the best option under certain circumstances.

I've been considering the idea of amputation as an elective procedure.  It sounds strange I know, but I consider the achievements we've made with prosthetics.  People with no legs are now able to run professionally, and I mean actually run.  We're creating robotic arms that respond to nerve impulses to flex fingers.  One man has replaced his standard glass eye with one with a camera, to record and document his life.  Given these advancements, how far off are we from creating cybernetic enhancements, prostheics that not only perform as well as a natural body part, but surpass a fully organic counterpart.  In order to utilize such enhancements, some people would have to voluntarily remove a healthy extremity.

Is such an idea so really far fetched?  As it is, women undergo breast enhancement surgery, an elective procedure using prosthetic enhancements  Of course, that's not removing an arm or a leg, but it is a surgical augmentation.  Workers able to move from intensely delicate jobs to ones that require great strength.  Soldiers with hidden weapons build into their bodies.  Spies with compartments for hiding messages, or with built in data ports for accessing computers and servers.  Investigators and law-enforcement offices with camera eyes, so we can know exactly what they saw and when they saw it.  Still, I prefer my body to be completely organic, given the choice.

I next consider the need for consent.  If a child or teenager needed an amputation, I think that would give us cause to pause and wonder why.  Given the reasons behind the need for amputation, we should ask if the parents' actions or inactions directly caused the circumstances.  If the answer is a definite "no" then we should all be glad we took the time to confirm that.  If the answer, however, is yes, then I have to wonder if the parents are in a position to make decisions in the best interest of the child or teen.

Since this is getting long, I'll stop here and tomorrow I'll share what the real point is.

Edited for spelling and grammar.