Today is my birthday. I am 57 years old. When I was born I weighed 2 lbs. My twin brother William lived for only one day. In a sense, I am a walking advertisement for ethical medicine.
According to the great Princeton blowhard Peter Singer my parents ought to have aborted me: after all, my life would be hard. That would certainly have been a compelling position in the mid 1950’s when blind children weren’t accepted into public education or the public square for that matter. But here I am. All because some doctors decided I was worth saving.
Now I’m not going to sentimentalize my life, not going to argue that I have more to give back to society because I wasn’t shoved into a shoebox and dumped in the woods. I won’t say that disability isn’t hard. But I will say that able bodied utilitarian philosophers who don’t understand technology or its place in human evolution can’t talk knowledgeably about the value of life. We are capable and strong–all of us but all the more so when you have a disability and the right people in your community.
I get to make a birthday wish. I wish you the right people in your community.
Planet of the Blind 
Happy gosh-darned birthday, Steve Kuusisto! And an honor to say so.
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Happy Birthday to you, dear Steve. I am thrilled that we are in the same community.
I hope that all of your wishes come true.
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