Kusakabe, a former geriatric specialist from Osaka, explained to AFP the thinking behind his shocking proposition, saying removing paralysed limbs would make patients lighter and reduce the burden on caregivers in case the care industry reaches crisis point.
Well, if those limbs are not working anymore, with no way to recover, it really is just dead weight. Only with consent ofc, but the possibility should be given.
Removing a limb is not as simple as cutting it off. There can be a host of issues that follows an amputation not least of which is constant phantom pain.
Not to mention, amputation is a major operation itself.
That’s an interesting question. I assume one doesn’t feel a paralyzed limb. Would a phantom pain still occur in the case of amputation?
AFAIK Yes. If you read the Wikipedia article people born without a specific limb can also have phantom pain.
Doesn’t paralysis just mean you can’t move it, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t feel? I wouldn’t also count out someone developing phantom pain after an amputation despite not having any feeling on the limb prior.
Yeah, I don’t know whether you feel anything or not - usually doctors poke your limbs with a needle and watch for reactions. I assume all the nerve communications to the limb
isare severed in most of the cases, but then again, I’m assuming.In many cases it’s worse than dead weight. Those limbs are prone to cause further issues - if you can’t move and feel the limb, it is not rare to hurt it badly simply by not realizing that the way the limb currently is positioned causes blood flow issues or outright injury, making them susceptible to infections.
But i don’t think - with the scale of demographic issues in mind - that this is something that can reduce japans problems in a meaningful way. A radical rethinking of how much pressure work and economic needs can be allowed to be inflicted on their population, in combination with a strategic campaign to reduce misogyny and xenophobia, and increases in lifetime income of mothers (by acknowledging that child rearing is a full time job) to the same level as everyone else are needed.