Vulcan attitudes to the disabled
- Thread starter JoeZhang
- Start date
Like many have said, Vulcans respect and value all life. It is one of their core philosophies. Also, the idea that a person only has a right to be here when he or she is of some use to society is disgusting.
Actually, there was a fat Vulcan in "Fusion" (ENT).
Actually, there was a fat Vulcan in "Fusion" (ENT).
Vulcans would see any form of illness as a problem to be solved, not as a marketing opportunity.
Healthcare on Vulcan would be a given. Medical research would be a priority. Gene therapy would eliminate the majority of congenital illness. Prenatal surgeries to correct cardiac defects, etc., would be the best in the quadrant. Obstetric care would be exemplary, so that birth injury would be all but eliminated, and the rare premature birth would be met with optimal care.
With all of that, there would be very, very few disabled children and they would receive lifelong care.
Healthcare on Vulcan would be a given. Medical research would be a priority. Gene therapy would eliminate the majority of congenital illness. Prenatal surgeries to correct cardiac defects, etc., would be the best in the quadrant. Obstetric care would be exemplary, so that birth injury would be all but eliminated, and the rare premature birth would be met with optimal care.
With all of that, there would be very, very few disabled children and they would receive lifelong care.
One might look at this from the pseudohistorical point of view, too.
Vulcan is a desert world, and desert environments classically are conductive of cultural practices of killing the weak. In a desert community, the importance of multiplying is less than on fruitful plains - rather, the community tries to maintain equilibrium with the environment, and killing of the weak would thus be rational.
However, modern Vulcans value reason and knowledge above all. And modern Vulcans, that is, Surakian ones from 300-400 AD onwards, are the product of an industrialized society where the limitations of desert life no longer really apply. Bodily disabilities would not feature much in the logical culling decisions of modern Vulcans, then. Mental ones would be a different matter - but modern Vulcans also value diversity, and they might find worth in exceptional minds - even ones that we might classify as "inferior".
Indeed, those Surakians who survived the nuclear holocaust of the Last Big One might place higher value than ever on those who possess key knowledge: the elderly, the eccentrics, those with physical disabilities that force them to concentrate on mental skills. For the civilization to survive, retention of skills would be more important than physical prowess.
Timo Saloniemi
Vulcan is a desert world, and desert environments classically are conductive of cultural practices of killing the weak. In a desert community, the importance of multiplying is less than on fruitful plains - rather, the community tries to maintain equilibrium with the environment, and killing of the weak would thus be rational.
However, modern Vulcans value reason and knowledge above all. And modern Vulcans, that is, Surakian ones from 300-400 AD onwards, are the product of an industrialized society where the limitations of desert life no longer really apply. Bodily disabilities would not feature much in the logical culling decisions of modern Vulcans, then. Mental ones would be a different matter - but modern Vulcans also value diversity, and they might find worth in exceptional minds - even ones that we might classify as "inferior".
Indeed, those Surakians who survived the nuclear holocaust of the Last Big One might place higher value than ever on those who possess key knowledge: the elderly, the eccentrics, those with physical disabilities that force them to concentrate on mental skills. For the civilization to survive, retention of skills would be more important than physical prowess.
Timo Saloniemi
That slow rate, and the whole Pon Farr thing and the bizarre telepathic bonding system, could all be evolutionary responses to the original desert environment. Isolated communities would risk interbreeding unless a way existed to enforce crossbreeding. Instead of custom or legislation, the Vulcan way of enforcing would be telepathic bonding - which would work across the great distances that separate the communities.
Of course, when you live for two and a half centuries, your parents might have a keen interest in culling you at an early age if your centuries are going to be dragged down by a malformed leg or something.
Timo Saloniemi
Of course, when you live for two and a half centuries, your parents might have a keen interest in culling you at an early age if your centuries are going to be dragged down by a malformed leg or something.
Timo Saloniemi
Again, non-canon, but the book Spock's World, gives some wonderful insights into the early, even pre-historic, Vulcan (world) and Vulcan people as interpreted by author Diane Duane. In a personal fanfic I'm writing for three close friends, I plan to mention in passing the 'legendary' Vulcan 'death touch' which was 'bred out.' 
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