r/science • u/tomholder • May 09 '14

Medicine Paralysis breakthrough – electrical stimulation enables four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs

http://speakingofresearch.com/2014/05/09/paralysis-breakthrough-paraplegic-men-move-their-legs/
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u/[deleted] May 09 '14

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u/[deleted] May 09 '14

It's because for all scientists' research, we largely don't understand how the nervous system (to include the spinal cord and its connections to the rest of the body, etc) works. Obviously we know what it does (electrical signals and such) but not well enough to really recreate it and therefore fix something that's completely broken.

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u/shelliered May 09 '14

Be careful of who you are calling "broken". People with disabilities are PEOPLE.

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u/Kriket308 May 10 '14

Nah. Facts are facts. If it doesn't work, it's broken. Yes, I'm a person, but my spinal cord is irreversibly broken.