Pre-existing conditions. This might help. Not really the source I would have wanted, but on a quick look this came up, and this is a standard definition.
http://healthinsurance.about.com/od/glossary/g/preex1.htm
That's where I made my first mistake; I should have pointed out the diffeence between the usual and customary definition of "pre-existing conditions" as used in regards to insurance, and what I was thinking of, simply the way a person comes into this world, and I was trying to look at it from the latter definition.
Like I said, it was late at night.....
Under the more common definition, I have three "pre-existing conditions;" deafness, a propensity towards WAY too many respiratory ailments, and melanoma. It's been a very long time ago now, but I have been refused medical insurance on the second one.
And again, I must point out that I am in a different situation than nearly all others here at conservativecave; I am a single male with no spouse or dependents, and so have a greater degree of freedom (my actions affect only myself) than they do; I can take risks no sane person with a spouse and dependents dare take.
As everyone knows, while I am enthusiastic about things such as cochlear implants and other ear-reconstructon for people who once had hearing, but then lost some, or all, of it, I am "thumbs down" on money being spent on the same thngs for people who were born hard of hearing or deaf.
It seems to me there is way too much money spent on trying to correct "mistakes" of nature. I find no fault, no fault at all, with correcting a cleft palate on an infant, or repairing the hole in the heart of an infant, but I'm talking about something different here; non-life-threatening conditions such as being born blind or deaf or sexual confusion or the wrong color of skin or too big of a nose.