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Wow, everyone has had quite a few interesting things to say about the idea of diversity. I wanted to think a bit about what Emily said, because I wonder just what the difference is between doing a procedure before birth to end cystic fibrosis and one to end deafness. She mentioned that the important distinction was that CF causes a shortened lifespan while deafness does not. Now I admit freely that I have not done any research, but Im pretty sure that advances in medical treatment have increased the average lifespan for someone with CF to about 40 years. I do not know if the lifespan for someone who is deaf is shorter or not, but I wonder if there is any type of increase in accidents caused by deafness. We rely so much on our hearing, think about car horns or even a shouted "STOP!" from a parent.

What is the difference, then, (or is there even a difference) between doing a procedure to change the genes of a fetus, doing a procedure to correct hearing in utero, and putting in a cochlear implant the day a child is born? I am still unclear as to why you can do a procedure to allow a child to hear, but only to them--you cannot affect their genetics to prevent that child's children from having to undergo the same type of procedure.

I was also interested by the comment about "being the diversity" in a situation. I was wondering exactly what that meant, and whether you had to be the apparent diversity (such as in race) to "qualify". Often as a Jew I feel like "the diversity" but in other situations I am "diverse" because I am from the midwest, or because I am straight, or because I went to public school or for such a wide variety of reasons. I wonder if anyone is ever NOT "the diversity" in a situation for some reason.

Also (though this relates more to last week and is also really cool) I wanted to share this link http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3341739.ece

It is about blind children learning how to use echolocation to "see" the world around us....says a lot about disability/ability!