{"id":313,"date":"2012-01-24T12:03:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T20:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/a-question-of-hope-healing-or-heartbreak-for-people-with-vision-loss\/"},"modified":"2012-01-25T08:04:30","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T16:04:30","slug":"a-question-of-hope-healing-or-heartbreak-for-people-with-vision-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/a-question-of-hope-healing-or-heartbreak-for-people-with-vision-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"A question of hope, healing or heartbreak for people with vision loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>There has been a flurry of recent reports circulating around the web regarding some promising results for people who have vision loss.&#160; These latest research results are showing the potential for the implantation of human embryonic stem cells and people who have degenerative retinal diseases, such as macular degeneration and Stargardt\u2019s disease.&#160;&#160;&#160; Below I\u2019ve hyperlinked just a few for you.&#160; Disseminating this news is not my purpose here, however.&#160; I want to ask my readers a few questions about your feelings on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<\/p>\n<p>If I had to guess, I would imagine the responses to my questions would vary widely,&#160; depending upon when, and under what circumstances, you lost your eyesight.&#160; How likely would you be to participate in this sort of trial?&#160; If your eyesight could be restored, would you leap at the chance?&#160; What if the results were only temporary?&#160; What if the treatment were of a nature that precluded later, potentially more promising outcomes?&#160; What if the treatment worked for many, but not for you?&#160; How would you feel about no longer being part of a community, such as the smaller RP community, or the larger disability community?&#160; How much of your sense of self is defined by your vision, or lack thereof?&#160; Would you choose a restorative treatment for yourself first, or your children?&#160; If you are a sighted spouse of a partner who is blind, how would you feel about the change in dynamic of your relationship?&#160; Is there any aspect of your character or personality that would be changed by restored vision loss?&#160; What if the result was little more than an approximation of eyesight, say, the ability to perceive outlines, but no details or color?&#160; Would you be satisfied with mere light perception?&#160; I guess the ultimate question is, what would you be willing to settle for?&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; <\/p>\n<p>&#160;<\/p>\n<p>I can think of a thousand other questions, but you get the idea.&#160; Please comment and share your thoughts.&#160; I think many of my sighted readers might be very surprised by some of the responses.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vancouversun.com\/health\/Stem+cells+bring+hope+patients\/6041992\/story.html\">Click here to read Stem Cells Bring Hope<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/\">Click here to go to The Lancet<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.aarp.org\/2012\/01\/24\/hope-for-the-blind-stem-cells-improve-vision\/\">Click here to read AARP blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/news\/2012\/01\/early-promise-for-human-embryonic-stem-cell-therapy.html\">Click here to read article on Nature.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blindness.org\/usher-syndrome\/3057-participants-in-the-first-stem-cell-clinical-trials-for-retinal-disease-show-improved-visihttp:\/\/www.blindness.org\/usher-syndrome\/3057-participants-in-the-first-stem-cell-clinical-trials-for-retinal-disease-show-improved-visionon\">Click here to read more on clinical trials<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#160;<\/p>\n<p>You can also learn more by following @fightblindness on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>&#160; <\/p>\n<p>So, what would you do if you could change everything? <\/p>\n<p>&#160;<\/p>\n<p>LL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a flurry of recent reports circulating around the web regarding some promising results for people who have vision loss.&#160; These latest research&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/a-question-of-hope-healing-or-heartbreak-for-people-with-vision-loss\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A question of hope, healing or heartbreak for people with vision loss<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-mining","category-random-ramblings","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314,"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessibleinsights.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}