Deaf People Demand Right for "Designer" Deaf Children
We're rapidly approaching Gattaca, if anyone remembers that film, in which your place in society was determined by your genetics.
Jackie Ballard, CEO of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID), says that deaf couples should have the right to screen their embryos so that if they desire, they can pick a deaf child over a hearing one.
Arguments have been made that many physically challenged people do not seem themselves as defective, but as unique, and that is why they would like the opportunity to have a deaf child. Additionally, some say, by labeling such a choice as selecting a "defective" embryo, society is making a statement its true feelings about its disabled members.
This is a touchy subject. Go one way, removal of imperfections, and you start talking about eugenics. Go the other way, and you have to tread lightly to avoid offending people.
While it's clear, and studies have shown the difficulties involved in raising a hearing child in a deaf household, what gives us the right to play God? Isn't part of having a child wondering how they will turn out? And how would doctors, having taken the Hippocratic Oath, feel about this?
Professor Gedis Grudzinskas, medical director of the Bridge Centre, a clinic in London that screens embyros, said:
"This would be an abuse of medical technology. Deafness is not the normal state, it is a disability. To deliberately create a deaf embryo would be contrary to the ethos of our society."There is IVF for the sake of those who cannot conceive in any other fashion, but in this case they would be using IVF to try to tailor their baby. That comes too way close to Gattaca for my taste. How do you readers feel?
21 comments:
No way. This would leave the path open to those who would want any other aberration on the fringe of society - blind, dwarf, midget, gay, color blind, etc. With all due respects to those, I say let the children arrive as they will. Children are our legacy, not our present or past and should have every opportunity we can provide them.
This is not a surprise to me. Anything goes in this world now. Why would someone deliberately want a child with abnormalities? It is already hard to see a child with difficulties and challanges. Many parents would rather see themselves suffer, than their child. What is this world coming too?
Mom, Roswell,Ga.
Abnormalities? Disabilities? What's next, to deny a black couple with mixed parentage the right to choose a black baby? What we fail to grasp is that, a "normal" person who loses their hearing is considered disabled. But those who are born deaf do NOT see themselves as disabled, any more than someone born with three arms would. They are different, so you call them disabled and try to make them fit in with YOUR lifestyle. Until you really know Deaf Culture, you cannot hope to understand or pass judgment.
I agree with the post above mine. There are plenty of more important issues to be angry about.
Why would any parent, deaf or whatever else, want their baby to be born with any handicap at all? That's pure selfishness. They are only thinking of themselves and not their children.
Hi
As a Deaf person myself, I am in a better position to comment about the normality of being Deaf. Like Alison said, that Sunday times article is a load of crap, to which unniformed people are responding to with yet more crap.
I've just had my Christmas spoilt having to read ignorant, uninformed and unmitigated prejudicial responses - too numerous to mention.
But do yourselves a favour, go and read about Deafness from a Deaf person's point of view [and not the toss you get handed down by the media, the medical profession and other uninformed sources].
At the very least, go to this site: www.stopeugenics.org and find out what it's really about!
Here's my blog post in response to that article:
http://alltheyoungdudes.radio666fm.com/2007/12/23/media-watch-hearing-people-still-dont-get-it/
Here's the article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article3087367.ece
First, I don't believe in the "playing God" argument: by that count, every time you take an asprin, use antibiotics, use IVF to get pregnant, etc., you're playing God. Unless you decide that God put the technology here, most of human invention that increases our survival rates could be argued as "playing God". There are parents who refuse to immunize their children against polio for this very reason...
Anyway. The problem, as I see it, is that people already make choices about whether to keep a child based on genetic issues: e.g. if a fetus has down's syndrome or other significant defects, some parents decide not to keep the child. So the question is where do we draw the line? Or do we? Like, there are studies showing that more attractive people, taller people, tend to be more successful and get better jobs. Therefore, having a tall, attractive child gives it a survival advantage. Is it okay to manipulate a zygote's genes to give it advantageous traits? What if you could genetically give your child immunity from AIDS, or switch off the gene in your family that makes it susceptible to breast cancer or leukemia?
Human history and the animal kingdom are full of parents that abandon their offspring if those offspring are too weak or too "defective" to survive. It definitely makes me feel squeamish to admit it, but I think it's a part of our humanity to want to make these sorts of judgments about our offspring.
It's a complicated issue, for sure...
Anyone who has a deaf child on purpose, with intent, should be charged with the most severe level of child abuse.
If "they" want a deaf child, then I say let them do it. They are the ones who have to face their maker (God) with their decision not me. And on the other hand, I, personally, think they are messing with the natural order and should be punished by God in the end.
It's not that they want to make a normal baby deaf. What they want is to choose from the options the one who's deaf, the ones "normal" couples would try to avoid. It's not child abuse because that particular being would have born deaf anyways, the alternative would be to not let their deaf offspring a chance for life.
I am deaf and I feel sorry for the people that say/think that being deaf is an abnormality, a handicap, or an imperfection. My deafness has made me who I am and I would not change those things. We all have struggles and it's up to us to choose whether we're going to make "lemons" or toss the whole barrel of apples out just because one is not entirely happy with the whole package. I have three hearing children who have also been shaped by my deafness (and their own genetic make-up) and I'm proud of them and who they are. When I was pregnant with my first, my doctor tried to convince me that I should abort the child because of "genetic imperfections". I refuse to do so on the grounds that that is what the Lord had decided to give me. Turned out that the child did not have the genetic make-up that the doctor said it may have. So, if that happens to a deaf couple and they end up getting a hearing child "accidentally", what will they then do? Abandon? Abuse? Reject?
We all need to be thankful for the cards we're given and learn how to play those cards to our and society's best interest.
This comment is for the deaf person who said the comments ruined her christmas yadda yadda. Ok I went to the site you posted.
It clearly says that when hearing humans breed, you guys consider it INBREEDING. Ok so I'll throw it right back at ya. If deaf people choose to modify just for deaf childrenb and/or abort fetuses that AREN'T deaf, wouldn't that be considered INBREEDING as well? What a load of crap. I think more is missing with you than your hearing. Further, hearing is survival. Deaf kid runs out into the street, kid can't hear parents screams to stop. Hearing detects predators, human or otherwise. So much is missing when deaf, no music, no sound, just a dead stillness that screams so loud it it has no sound. You want to condemn others to this? It is child abuse, any way you look at it. Perhaps it's for the extra money for a defective child. I can't think of any other reason but it makes me sick.
To Ladydee,
I'm the deaf mom with three hearing children. I'm in my mid 40's and have never been hit by a car (and I played in the streets a lot growing up). While I don't agree with the Deaf people wanting to pick a deaf child via embryo, I don't think you have any right to say whether being deaf is a bad thing or not. I actually appreciate my deafness. I bet I can find just as many bad/negative things about being hearing as you can about being deaf. There is always two sides the a coin and you need to learn to live with both (the easy and the difficult).
P.S. Hearing is NOT survival, common sense is.
Sorry, but wanting to have a defective child is the greediest, most self-absorbed thing you can do. The natural state of a human is with 5 senses. If you have less than that you are defective. I know that that word sucks but it is appropriate. I have my own problems (messed up index finger on right hand, coeliac disease, and probably more). I don't want my child to be disabled just so that they can understand what I went through. That is conceited and selfish. I want my child to be as close to the human norm as possible.
There is no way I would knowingly choose a defective baby over a normal (there, I said it) one.
The question is really how far to go.
How about when someone who is sans legs marries someone else who is sans legs and they want a child who is sans legs?
Is that where we as a society want to go?
I might deny a mixed couple a 'black' baby if all being black means is having dark skin. But I would never deny them 'their' baby.
If someone wants to adopt a baby with disabilities that is great. We need more of those people out there. If someone wants to adopt a child that looks more like them, then that is fine to.
And down the road, when the child finally learns that they are blind/deaf/legless *because* of a decision that their parents' made, what then? Will they love the disability as much as their parents? Or will they see it in a different light (since everybody is unique)--perhaps as a disability and not a window into another (or in this case "another's") experience.
Uhm. Sorry, maybe I misunderstand. Are deaf people, as a majority, supportive of aborting children until they get a deaf one? This is, I think, pretty much like having a child and then poking it's eardrums out. How can anyone consider this ethically culpable? I mean, first they'd need to even find a doctor willing to do this. Hippocratic oath, etc. etc.
Basically, this whole thing is stupid. It'd be like me wanting to abort any children I might have because, say, they don't have black hair.
Also, since when was gayness considered 'an aberration on the fringe of society'?
I have in my life learned several facts about people , Dim witted people tend to do Dim witted things ,And wanting to produce a hadicapped child on purpose is Dim witted , one other thing I have learned is Dimwits dont know they are Dimwits and will useally do what they want to do anyway
I'm deaf and I don't see anything wrong with wanting a child to be deaf. Why wouldn't a deaf parent want their child to be deaf? After all deaf parents themselves don't see their hearing impairment as a flaw. So who are you "hearies" to tell them something is wrong with them? Haven't you ever thought "Oh I hope my child has my eyes" or something along those lines? I think that if a deaf parent hopes their child will be deaf like them that it's a wonderful thing! After all only 1% of the population is hearing impaired and deaf people gladly welcome another "deafie" into their community. And it is not pure selfishness to want their child to be deaf like them! I consider my hearing impairment as a gift, so why can't you think of it as wanting to pass down a culture? Why is it selfish? I think that anyone that thinks that we should consider ourselves to be handicapped has been fed a load of crap!
It is easily selfishness. A person who is advocating this is willfully removing a basic ability from a human being without their consent.
We aren't talking about the marvelous strength of character that somebody who has been afflicted with a condition has struggled to overcome. Those people have every right to say "This is part of who I am and I am proud of it." However, the beauty of deaf culture is in spite of the actual deafness. It is in the courage of the people who have had no choice but to live in a certain manner and have created something expressive and beautiful out of what could have otherwise been a tragic event.
Surely, hope for your child to be deaf like you if you wish. This is no more obscene than hoping your child is good at football or has a talent for music.
However, to do this on purpose to a human being is monstrous. It is no different than say, making sure somebody can't walk so they can play paraplegic rugby like their father.
They are advocating purposefully removing a basic human ability for the simple vanity that somebody be more like them. This is an abuse of medical technology and a violation of human rights.
To all the people who think there is nothing wrong with this, I have to wonder. When the child is older, will you tell them? Will you stand face to face and let them know "The reason that you can't hear is because we decided that you shouldn't be able to?"
I congratulate dead culture for spinning gold out of straw, but I question the sanity of anybody who would force such a task on another.
Great article :)
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