“PAIN IS A GIFT.” So said a doctor studying Ashlyn Blocker. Ashlyn has a rare genetic mutation that prevents her from feeling pain. As a child, she ran around for two days on a broken ankle. She has put her hands on a hot machine and burned the flesh off. And she has reached into boiling water to retrieve a dropped spoon. “Everyone in my class asks me about it, and I say, ‘I can feel pressure, but I can’t feel pain.’ Pain! I cannot feel it!” (Heckert, 2012).
Jeff Riedel/Contour/Getty Images