Originally Posted by Growler
Rick, on this topic in particular, I wonder if anyone else noticed your signature.
Here's the thing with anyone who's suffered a disabling injury, or is born with a disabling condition: Your life is, by the very nature of that disability, now different from what the able-bodied consider "normal" living. That's just the way it is; things are going to be different for you for the rest of your life. That statement, in and of itself, is not discriminatory, it's just reality.
I'm not saying this well, because I'm not finding the words well. It's the difference between skill and innate ability. I can throw a ball, and so can a major league pitcher. For both of us, a casual toss is just that, a casual toss. But that pitcher has a skill I don't have - since I don't have the practice to develop the skill he has, he will always be able to throw better than I, even though we both share the same innate ability (the act of moving our arm to propel a ball.) For a disabled person, the loss of the limb (the dominant arm, in this example) limits or eliminates the innate ability (moving the arm to propel a ball - without the arm, you just can't throw a ball with it), to replace it solely with a learned skill (manipulating the prosthetic to throw a ball).
If the prosthetic is capable of more than the limb replacing it was capable of, then learning to use it grants an unfair advantage, the same as cork in a baseball bat provides an unfair advantage to a hitter.
If the prosthetics were, on a point-by-point basis, identical to and on par with the limbs replaced, then he should be allowed to run wherever he wishes. But if the limbs are, in any manner, superior to the ability of a healthy, developed limb, then they're No-Go.
It's a tribute to the man's skill that he can run on prosthetic limbs, and he provides great hope for disabled people worldwide. But that doesn't change anything about the fact that he is disabled. He has learned to live with his disability remarkably well, better than some able-bodied people, for sure. That fact does not confer upon him the right to any special advantages.
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