the boy

David Phillip Vetter ,a boy from Shenandoah, Texas, United States suffered from a rare genetic disease now known as severe combined immune deficiency syndrome (SCIDS) and was forced to live in a sterile environment all his life till the last dying moments.

He is better known as the bubble boy, a term coined by the media, and possibly the doctors and authorities involved. To me, he is more. He was isolated from the rest but his intelligences, mind, soul and spirit are earth-bounded. His worries, thoughts, nightmares and dreams may seem different at first glance. Yet the common theme of self-identity and the phrase of growth remains painfully similar.

"The great scandal of the Bubble Boy was that he was conceived for the bubble. The team that did this didn't think through this very well. They didn't consider what would happen if they didn't find an immediate cure. They operated on the assumption that you could live to be 80 years old in a bubble, and that would be unfortunate but okay."

A hope when given freely for existing problem is reckless optimistic, a hope when given with care for the same problem can be timely morphine.But a hope when given to a situation not existing is definitely a fool's gold, an illusion waiting to tumble.

The researchers and his parents tried to give him as normal a life as possible so formal education and television was allowed ... Yet for a boy who longed to participate in the outside world that he could see out the window and on television, he wondered :"Whatever I do depends on what somebody else decides I do. Why school? Why did you make me learn to read? What good will it do? I won't ever be able to do anything anyway. So why? You tell me why."

Yet there is no answer an outsider can reply isit? The path to enlightenment while not necessary lonely is alway alone. Forced realization can never bear the fruits of wisdom like how the roots of painful growth is always maturity in thoughts and discipline. He may never have realized the cold consolation that his parents and the doctors whom abandon him held on to years after his passing could have only been that thousand of children was saved by him. That his life purpose was answered by science.

That was not what he is.

Regardless of whether he had consent to the life of experiment and lab object, his purpose in life was not to provide research for the scientists. His purpose, to him was only to enjoy the simple miracles and wonders of life.

And that should have been enough.

A sweet boy, born to a lifetime of condemnation to alienation, obedience so it would be easier on the people who started this all.. confined to the jails of sanity, the nightmares of conformity

One of his original doctors, John Montgomery, said at the meeting that if he had the chance, he would conduct the same project with another child. "How many more?" he was asked, to which he replied: "Until I determined that there was no more information to be gained by such a thing, or if the outcome was certain." Montgomery said in 1997, "At the time, we were encouraged by everything we knew. If people didn't take chances, none of us would be here. Columbus would have stayed in Spain and would have been selling tortillas, because he was warned he would sail off the edge of the earth."

A choice when taken willing is a chance, a chance of adventure and change. Yet, a choice and a decision when made without consent is blinding ignorance. How many times have we heard "It's for your own good" when the ending has never justified the means? The love from his parents and doctors, may be irrefutable for all we know, yet the selflessness when needed went unanswered. The care and love may be given for all that is not recorded in the books, yet the genuine touch of a humanity and the generous spirit was never given freely.

"Daddy, I will agree to anything to feel better."
David's response to a direct question from his father on whether he wished to be taken out of the bubble after he turned too ill for treatment in the bubble, few months after receiving his elder sister's unmatched and viruses infected bone marrow.

Too late, his wishes unheard, his consents ignored, his rights deprived and dignity brushed aside. Too late for regrets and blame... and so we lived in blindfolds, certain that our actions, if given a chance to right the wrong will still remain. Living in the darks, with our eyes and minds closed to a life of possibilities and rightful hopes...

For the boy who lived with a purpose, even if he didnt know it while he was alive for 12 short years... we remember the lessons...