i am legally blind (20/200 in my left eye and 20/400 in my right) due to nystagmus caused by optic nerve atrophy caused by hydrocephalus (swelling of the arachnoid or water pockets cushioning the brain).
i read a couple months ago in reader’s digest that doctors are experimenting to see if they can fix a paralytic’s nerves to cure him with genetic engineering. if they can do that, it seems like they could fix me too. i’m not sure if they replace the whole nerve(s) or just add myelin. the article made it sound like they didn’t have to kill an embryo to accomplish this, but was not very clear.
do you think they could help me without killing an embryo? how? how much do you think it would cost?
These things are in the very earliest stages of research. So Bill Gates can’t afford it. But in 50 years, who knows.
As to the “killing fetuses” part. Large parts of genetic engineering have nothing to do with fetal cells. Due to political and uneducated restrictions, there have been quite successful efforts to generate stem cells from other sources. The switch slows things down, but the long term will likely come out the same.
Stem cells are the key to an amazing amount of future treatments. But it’s going to take a while.
lorinada, do you wear glasses or anything to help your vision? mine can’t be corrected with lenses since it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual cornea and lens.
i’m assuming you can’t drive ‘cause i’m 16 and they won’t give me a liscense (but i don’t think i’d want to drive like this anyway). there are some advantages tho’. the commission for the blind is paying for my college education, and i get $460/mo. (well, my mom gets it and only gives me $60 of it).