AllDeaf.com - View Single Post - FDA-Shocking Results on CI Statically

deafdude1 · 09-09-2009, 07:57 AM

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Originally Posted by ref74

Sorry, but it is pretty easy to say "if I had hearing impaired children"... If you really have a child with this problem your role of parent is to take decisions for him. Parents MUST decide for their children. And you have to decide for what you think is the best option. Making this means considering carefully all the pros and cons, evaluating the risks and being strong in going over the worries, because every parent would kill himself instead of exposing his child to any risk.

Ill do the same as my parents did for me. My parents gave me the best HAs(at the time anyway) and sent me to a speech therapist twice a week. They also trained me to speak clearly and understand some speech. I thaught myself to read lips, if not, they would teach me that too. None of this carries any real risk. It's hard work however!

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What's the sense of the role if you simply wait they grow up? You avoid responsibilities and the risk of doing something wrong, letting your child to take the risk.

Because being deaf is not a health issue. It's "inconvenient" but hard work and training can compenstate nicely for this disability. Many Deaf people don't even consider their deafness a disability but just a normal alternative to being hearing. I would want my child to have the best possible hearing but what if this isn't what my child wants? Alot of the Deaf on Alldeaf have no interest in a CI or even stem cells, they are perfectly happy/fine just the way they are and that's their choice!

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There are so many decisions every mother and father take for their children, think about cultural habit, religion, education, experiences offered. What should they do? Do noting, close the children in a room waiting for them to grow up and when they are old enough ask them if they want to be catholic, protestant or whatever, if they want to go to a technical, scientific, or professional school, if they prefer to be free, or to follow rigid rules while they live in the family?

Because there's no health risk to any of the above! But when the children become adults, they get to choose all of this and can always change.

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And if any medical decision has to be taken, easy: if you can, just wait until they can understand and let them to decide...
How can you think like that?!?!
The parents have to decide for their children, until they can decide for themselves.
Parents who decide to implant their child simply play their role. They give their child the possibility to develop spoken language more easily (hopefully) and give the child the possibility to choose between spoken language and sign language at the end.

For life or health preserving medical decisions, me and the doctor decide. For anything elective, the child decides when he's older or an adult. Cochlear implants(and stem cells for the matter) are borderline elective. They are a "want" rather than a "need" since it's been proven that deaf people are just as capable(saying they are less than capable would offend them) I developed spoken language just fine and every deaf child can develop language with speech training and going the oral route. Some parents choose both oral and sign language. I was never denied sign language, I simply chose on my own.

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In many cases if you decide to not decide, you are deciding anyway. The decision is making your child signing only.

The choice to sign was left to me and I decided no at a young age. I taught myself to read lips and it's as natural to me as signing and speech is to others. Because a CI is permanent, you can never undo this. The child can always get a CI as an adult but can never undo CI if forced on the child as residual hearing goes bye-bye. Ive read around and there has never been a child who regretted not being forced with a CI, in fact they are thankful that the CI decision was left to them to decide when they were old enough. But ive read many children who stopped wearing CI and resent their parents for forcing CI on them. If CI(and stem cells) opens doors, I will let the child open the doors himself.