The thing is, this is science fiction. This is the future, where the surgery/treatments/therapy have been perfected so that there is no more danger than with modern simple dental procedures like putting in a filling. Is it realistic to write someone in the twentieth century - in, say, an EU country with full public health coverage, because for some unfathomable reason SF writers don't seem to assume the US only-you-pay system will be operative among the stars ;) - as toothless by choice without implants or prosthetics, because they choose not to treat their tooth decay? This person would be very strange, and if you met them in a contemporary novel you'd expect that to be a plot point.
My point being, do you really think that if treatment for blindness or quadriplegia were reliable and available, after a generation or two there would be a significant amount of people choosing not to obtain such treatment?
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Date: 2010-06-13 08:41 pm (UTC)My point being, do you really think that if treatment for blindness or quadriplegia were reliable and available, after a generation or two there would be a significant amount of people choosing not to obtain such treatment?