Hackneyed stereotyped conventional ignorance about amputation

[Stacey Asby]

None of us has all the answers and we can
> all choose to discuss these things with or without an open mind...

great point Mike, and was just what I was getting to myself.  My dictionary
here explains rational as: having reason or understanding..a.k.a. open mind.
:o)

....
> My dictionary has a definition for "choice"(def.#6):"a grade of meat
between
> prime and good".
> That's what my leg was before that tree fell on me...my choices were
quickly
> narrowed down for me as they were for us all...I don't think it is fair to
> belittle someone for the difficult choices they made for whatever reason
> that suited their life needs.Just my humble opinion...:o)

This was the point I was trying to make as well.  Making the choice to have
your leg removed and getting this doctor to agree to it, having a  leg that
is mangled beyond YOUR personal level of acceptance and getting a  doctor to
remove it, or inflicting some kind of unnecessary damage and then getting a
doctor to remove it, are ALL choices.  Whether they seemed rational to those
who used one of the different routes or not, they were all the choice of the
person owning the leg.
    This person could have kept the leg, and the mental suffering, you or I
could have kept the leg and the suffering and limited ambulation, and other
could have chosen to keep the leg and live with the uncontrollable feelings
to need it removed and not forced the situation.  It may have seemed like
mentally, and rationally there was no choice, in each of these person's
minds, but those instincts and degrees of rationale are no different than
those which tell you it makes sense to pull your hand off something hot.
You COULD choose to leave it there as your hand melts before you, but in
your infinite wisdom, you CHOOSE to pull it away.  You choose to accept your
survival instincts, and move toward what seems to YOU as the best solution
for happiness and survival.  The level of rationale used to determine those
decisions, by others is only what is perceived as their understanding of
inappropriate, or demented, and there isn't anything "covert" about that
openness of understanding I don't think.
    The only ones I can think of who didn't have a choice about removing a
part of their own bodies, are those who were in a traumatic accident and the
limb was removed at that instant, or those who were unconscious for whatever
the reason, and the doctor or another party made the decision for them.
Even those who had it hanging by a thread or were told it's infection
threatened their lives, could have said they wanted to hang onto it if they
had chosen to, against the advice of all the doctors in the world.

StacEy