Treatment of Disabled/Handicapped

[ZulkirJhor]

The Houses are living on very little resources and taking care of someone who is blind, lost a leg in battle or otherwise unable to handicapped would use up more. How do you think most houses deal with this? I would imagine most houses strive to hold onto their humanity and would not just use them as biomatter... so that leaves three options I can see with a forth option for warriors.

Take care of them as needed, tweak them genetically to get rid of the handicap (this uses resources, but should benefit the house in the longrun), turn them into Biotics (I would imagine this is not the best option) or, if they are a warrior already, tweak their armor to compensate for their loss.

I imagine those would be the options for people that gain handicaps later in life (via battle, ratbomb, etc)... if born with a handicap, I imagine that most of the time they train the person for a class that its not an issue for; Blind, train them as a Falconer. Leglass, train them as an Outrider. etc

Thoughts?

[vaporsight]

I think it could greatly vary from House to House. Some probably do everything they can to help those with handicaps, and I see various bits of tweaking of the genome done via librarians. Careful breeding to help minimize the presence of flaws. Warriors who are handicapped in battle, are probably provided resources such that they and attempt to continue to function. Especially Dreadguard whom, from the way I read it, benefit from the higher end regeneration while within the suit.

Sadly, other houses would see such people as burdens and flaws, and potentially see these people as nothing more than biomass for the genepools. Again, it's up to how you see your house, and how you want it to fit in your game.

[Wooly]

Morality aside a trained combatant is far more valuable then just as raw biological material. Survivability has been a key consideration in combat aircraft and vehicle designed because in mass warfare you will lose vehicles (which can sometimes be repaired) faster then you can train crews to replace them.

Resistance fighters would have priority for biological replacement limbs or biotic systems.

[krispy]

The MB does talk about growing new limbs and organs in the Gene-Pools for those that have been lost .... so those that have lost a foot, arm, eye etc. can have a new one grown and grafted on by the Engineer.

As for those born with physical deformities... This would definitely occur in Retro-Villages. However, I would think that many a House would have checks in place to analyze the development during pregnancy, and if any defect was detected, then certain paths would be taken.

[flatline]

I don't have my book, but I seem to recall that if your host armor can regenerate a limb, the pilot's limb will also regenerate as long as the pilot stays inside the armor until it's healed.

Can someone back that up?

[krispy]

I don't have my book, but I seem to recall that if your host armor can regenerate a limb, the pilot's limb will also regenerate as long as the pilot stays inside the armor until it's healed.

Can someone back that up?

Yes, if the HA has Regeneration: Superior .... if a limb is lost, then the pilot will grow another if they stay inside the HA.

If not, the Engineer can grow another one

[Wooly]

Regrow? Yawn! I want a giant muscled biotic arm with a frickin bio laser in the palm.

[89er]

Before birth: regular check ups with necessary genetic modification to remove harmful traits.

After birth: Depending on level of importance to Haven, could be regular limb equivalent to specialized limb for job or dreadguard level minor augmentation that makes body more desirable and efficient.

[Tor]

I don't know if losing a leg would be enough for them to throw you out. Sure, they can't make metal prosthetics, but a wooden leg is a classic that could see a return.

If you look to the Xiticix in Rifts, they're probably even more brutal about efficiency and sacrificing for the hivemind, and even there, they will make resin peg legs so their warriors can remain fighting. Too many resources have gone into raising them to just throw them away, I figure. I would think this even stronger a consideration in Splicers.

Something that affects sensory perceptions could be a whole other matter though. I expect you would be given opportunities to learn new skills so that you can remain active. Perhaps given a test run with Living Armor with sensory enhancements which could compensate for your blindness?

Something that made you mentally handicapped to the point where you couldn't do much of anything useful though, yeah I can see you being put out to die to save on resources.

The MB does talk about growing new limbs and organs in the Gene-Pools for those that have been lost .... so those that have lost a foot, arm, eye etc. can have a new one grown and grafted on by the Engineer.

The Kittani would be impressed.

[abe]

What about mental handicaps/disabilities?

[Wooly]

What about mental handicaps/disabilities?

I'd like to believe society technologically advanced enough to make living armor a man can wear through genetic engineering would be able to genetically engineer healthy humans.

[Shark_Force]

you'd think so, but the setting suggests otherwise.

the mentally handicapped are explicitly noted as being quite likely to be turned into biotics.

as i've noted elsewhere, it seems like for whatever reason the biotech they have access to is good at physical modifications, but doesn't seem to be so good at mental modifications (apart from *decreasing mental stability, considering the biotics they make pretty much all have some form of mental illness or another).

[boxee]

I think they could fix any physical impairment. Mental illness most likely would become biotic in extreme cases, but mild mental illness would mostly be ignored.

[Shark_Force]

I think they could fix any physical impairment. Mental illness most likely would become biotic in extreme cases, but mild mental illness would mostly be ignored.

i'd say that likely depends on the mental illness in general. based on the fact that biotics are quite likely to have both a severe phobia *and* a bunch of other problems, unless your phobia is particularly inconvenient in terms of what triggers it, i'd say they're likely to completely ignore it provided you are contributing in some way no matter how severe it is.

i figure many things that we consider to be mental illness they'll probably just ignore.

[abe]

A apropriate phobia would be mechaphobia or fear of machines,yes?

[Shark_Force]

sure, makes a lot of sense, really. it's probably a lot more common than it is today; there's a pretty danged legitimate reason to fear machines, after all, and i would expect there are lots more events that could lead to developing an irrational fear of machines (as opposed to the above-mentioned rational fear of machines).

[BookWyrm]

I would like to see something like a grizzled warrior, having lost his hand & forearm in some long-ago battle, having an HA/bio-borg replacement that looks not-quite human.......

"Master Krev, why do you have.....*that*?"
"I lost my hand and arm many seasons ago, when our House volunteered to take down the Sentry Tower that enabled our House to vacate those Machine-infested lands to safety. We lost many fine warriors, but their sacrifice, and *this*, remind us that we must survive."

[kaid]

It seems like from the new write ups of engineers any mental illness or physical disability could be cured by engineers if they had time. It then becomes a question of does that house have enough engineers to allow them to spend time treating the mentally ill/physically disabled that takes time away from doing other things in the house.

[Shark_Force]

the new engineer writeup explicitly says they can't fix mental problems, actually.

a librarian actually might be able to, theoretically (practically speaking, they all tend to be a bit nuts, and aren't likely to care enough to take the time to put someone's mind straight even if their own mental issues didn't get in the way).

[kaid]

In reading the new write ups I don't see any mention about being unable to fix mental issues. Also given their ability to fix any genetic/body defect and given that many mental illnesses stem from some kind of imbalance/defect/defficiency given many of them are hereditary that alone should make engineers capable of curing most mental illness simply by negating the ones with more physical causes.

[Shark_Force]

In reading the new write ups I don't see any mention about being unable to fix mental issues. Also given their ability to fix any genetic/body defect and given that many mental illnesses stem from some kind of imbalance/defect/defficiency given many of them are hereditary that alone should make engineers capable of curing most mental illness simply by negating the ones with more physical causes.

from ability 3 (last line before ability 4):

"It is important to note that the Engineer can only cure physical wounds, not mental illness or insanity."

[kaid]

In reading the new write ups I don't see any mention about being unable to fix mental issues. Also given their ability to fix any genetic/body defect and given that many mental illnesses stem from some kind of imbalance/defect/defficiency given many of them are hereditary that alone should make engineers capable of curing most mental illness simply by negating the ones with more physical causes.

from ability 3 (last line before ability 4):

"It is important to note that the Engineer can only cure physical wounds, not mental illness or insanity."

Ah I did not see that although given how much mental illness is hereditary or caused by some physical defect/body chemistry imbalance and their ability to manipulate genes and the body I would suspect there would be only a limited amount of mental illness they could not actually fix.

Things like phobias/PTSD would not be curable but a lot of other stuff I suspect would although again it may be one of those things in a ravaged world they simply don't have time needed to do that much fine tuning on somebody.