I caught the tail-end of this program on PBS called "Sound and Fury". Was sort of a documentary looking into the life of this family of hearing-impaired folks who were having to deal with deciding whether or not they were going to try and get a cochlear implant for their one hearing-impaired son.

I seem to remember a thread discussing something similar (think it was two deaf lesbians wanting to conceive a deaf child or something) a while back. I found this program fascinating.

The parents were born to hearing-impaired grandparents, they have a hearing impaired daughter, and now they have these two little boys. Either the surgery was only valid for one of them, or something because only one (that I saw) had it done. But the argument was along the lines of "We're deaf, our parents are deaf, all the kids at the hearing-impaired school are deaf, why should our child be able to hear? We're his roots, and there's nothing wrong with it"

Opinions on the debate?

Not doing everything in one's power to help one's child overcome a disability is cruel, selfish, and idiotic.

These people don't seem to realize that deafness is a BAD THING. Therefore, they are MORONS. GIANT MORONS.

I wouldn't call them "Morons" really. I think they took a skewed look at things.

Here's how I see it: Healthy human beings are born with two arms, two legs, hands, feet, brain, a complete set of internal organs, and five senses. All functional. Anything less than that is a tragic physical flaw.

Does it make you less of a person? No. But being a person and being a complete human are two different things. Being an incomplete Human Being doesn't make you an inherently enobled Person.

I need glasses to read. Without glasses, everything's blurry and fuzzy and I can't make out fine print that well. By the logic of these parents, I shouldn't wear glasses, because without glasses I'm part of a societal subculture. My literary knowledge, my ability to express myself through the written word...they must all be flukes because my being able to see clearly is artificial.

Now, of course being deaf is a more extreme case, but it's in the same vein. The complete loss of a sense is different than having a slightly damaged sense, and I'm aware of that.

But my point is that I don't see where confusing a Person with a Complete Human achieves anything. We've got plenty of examples of astounding human beings who suffered terrible defects. Beethoven lost his hearing, Helen Keller...well we won't get into her. But you see the point. These are people who either lacked or lost vital parts of being a Complete Human Being. They were still complete People, however. There's no argument that a deaf or blind or paraplegic person can make a valid contribution to society.

But in accepting that we're all equal in that sense, why CHOOSE to live with a disability if you have the option? If I got shot and lost a lung, I'd want my full breath capacity back. If I lost an eye, I'd want binocular vision back. I'll agree that when you lose something you may well learn something profound about yourself...but I think there's something pretty profound in having all the bits and pieces and abilities that I was meant to have.

[ 08-06-2002: Message edited by: Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael ]

There isn't a damned thing wrong with wanting to live your life to the fullest with a disability. You should never let a disability hold you back.

But I agree with Deth on this. A parent, in my eyes, should want their child has healthy and whole and able to experience as much of life as they can. I can't even conceive of wanting to keep a child deaf. I would want my child to have more than what I was able to have, not settle for what I had to settle for.