My plotbunny's grumbling at me

[capri0mni]

Or: The Problems I'm Having with my Disabled Superhero Story Idea:

When I plan out a story, I like to think out how it might work from different points of view. If the story holds together from the antagonist's p.o.v., and the best friend's, and the neighbor's, then I know I have a story that won't disintegrate like a wet paper bag just when the plot's getting interesting (and if I get bored telling the story one way, I know I can switch it around, and see if that works better).

In a story that starts out being about a disabled child, that means I have to think about the child's parents, and doctors -- basically all the adults who make the decisions that shape this kid's life, before the kid has the ability to even speak for himself.

So: here's the big question that's dogging me:

In a future society that prides itself (mistakenly) on being utopian, and where most citizens are comfortable pretending that there are no disabled people (see point #2 on this list), when science is advanced enough to attempt complicated genetic engineering on a fetus, how would a freak child with wings and crippled legs even get a chance to be born, especially since "primitive" technology like ultrasound allow would allow everyone to see what the child is growing into before it's born?

I'm sure there's a way to answer that question. I just haven't figured out a satisfying solution, yet.

But the way that question is answered will have a big impact on the way the rest of the story unfolds.

[ETA: These are the ideas that have come up thanks to alryssa's and indefatigable42's replies (my writer's block almost always melts under the heat of blathering! ;-)):

Okay, I think I've got it: The doctors inform the parents that their developing baby is deficient in nerve and muscle growth, but there is an exciting new treatment that can be done in utero that utilizes genetically altered cells from the blue-tongued skink (what? skinks can regenerate new tails if they've been lost; specifics are good, and besides, they're easily kept as pets/lab animals. And they're cute). However, a further check-up via ultra sound reveals that instead of growing stronger legs, the fetus looks like it's growing wing buds. The doctors want to go into emergency surgery, and remove the wings before the baby's born (zapping them off with lasers, or something), but the parents no longer trust the doctors, since the first "fix" went so terribly wrong. So they pull out of publicly sanctioned medical care, and decide to have the baby "as is." That's when they decide that they will have to give the baby up to the "Special Home."

This means that the "Special Home" will also have to exist outside of government-run institutional system -- perhaps it's the special project of a wealthy man's "charity." That means that the Home will also be outside The City -- in some isolated, privately-owned location. So it's unlikely that the Big Calamity will be anything like "getting caught in the crossfire of a gangland war," which is kind of what I was thinking of, at first.

See what I mean about looking at a story from "peripheral" points of view?]

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

One way: The parents are from some religious or spiritual background that would proclude abortion, or they simply shun most technology and prefer more 'natural' or less invasive methods (perhaps their beliefs are similar to the old Native American belief that taking a photograph or image of someone can steal that person's soul?). Just because a society is technically utopian/advanced doesn't mean that some sections of it can't hold to older traditions, after all.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

That's kind of what I was leaning toward ... except if the family doesn't believe in the invasion of ultrasound, would they accept an experimental genetic alteration experiment to be performed, either?

Or maybe the crippling condition/experimental cure starts happening shortly after the baby's born, and it all happens in a black box incubator thingie?

Or maybe, the parents know the child is going to be born crippled, so they seek out some "back alley" experimental solution so the government won't find out?

Any of those would probably work, I just haven't decided on which one I prefer, or if there's another idea that hasn't matured in my brain yet, that's better than all of these.

But each one has a different potential for how the parents relate to the boy, and what their relationship with him is, as he grows up, which, in turn, affects the kind of hero he'd turn out to be...

As I heard Tom Baker say, out of my TV last week: "That's the trouble with ideas -- they only come a little at a time." (or something to that effect).

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

But then again, who says it has to be overt human-intervention lab-based genetic manipulation that gives him these wings/attributes? There could be a 'natural' concoction that could have an odd, extremely rare side effect.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

(For "mother" also read parents if you prefer.)

Religious/belief-driven mother doesn't do tech.
Mother with outlawed genes has child in secret (similar done by Julian May in Galactic Milieu novels).
Erm....

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I'm right there, in the middle of "Erm..." ;-)

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Two words: thalidomide babies.

Big Pharm invents a powerful antiemetic drug, and it's a miracle of science and it's prescribed willy-nilly by doctors all over the place for women with morning sickness. But it hasn't been tested rigorously enough, and a lot of babies are born with deformities. A society in awe of modern technology didn't anticipate that mistakes could be made, and consequently didn't have any infrastructure to support all the kids born with disabilities because of the mistakes.

I would have no trouble believing that his parents knew he would have disabilities, had the treatment because they believed it was a miracle cure, and then they and his teachers and doctors didn't know what the hell to do with him when he was born the way he was.