Thanks Spock for your intelligently reasoned thoughts. It sounds like you have a very caring family who are sensitive to your feelings.
I know what you mean about "the only thing we can't do is hear" line of thinking and I know that we have role models who have certainly achieved everything that a hearing person can. However one has to be quite highly motivated and resilient to do that and many of us are just not that. The reality is that there is higher unemployment levels for deaf people and underemployment. Many of us have work in the "deaf industry", which is shrinking. It costs an extra $1M to educate deaf child through the traditional special education route. There is higher levels of mental illness among us too, which is not surprising as we are a minority and 90% of us are born into hearing families. Worse - we are getting fewer in number. The numbers of deaf babies being born have dropped quite significantly due to medical advances and decreased fertility rates in general.
What I am saying is that I believe that it doesn't hurt to be pragmatic, to honestly recognise difficulties and not be afraid to grow by adapting. society is not going to do it for us and the power base is shrinking due to dropping numbers.
At the end of the day I still come back to it. I think that while parents should educate ourselves about the opinions of all different outcomes I don't think it should be *the* only factor in a parent's decision making process. You probably don't either. As we have seen on this board there is a wide variation in opinion and experience. Moreover, I believe the number of deaf people actually involved in the culture itself is a minority, so that has to be considered too.
Another factor to consider is that the body of opinion in any culture changes over time and does not stand still. At the time that your parents' would have implanted you the opinion in deaf culture against implants was how can we put it extremely opposed. Since then people have moderated their views, realising that CIs are here to stay and policy statements have been changed. What will be the situation in 20 years time? Should parents base their decisions based on the opinions of here and today when by the time the child is an adult everyone could have moved on?
Take hearing aids - when they first came out in the 1940s people were deeply opposed to them. Today they are accepted and not seen as something that threatens deaf culture or turn you into robots or whatever. It seems to me that there is a similar pattern with CIs. I think that with a carefully thought out approach combining a CI (only if appropriate for that child) and exposure to other deaf people and language - what could be wrong with that?
I'm glad you posted because I do think it's important for parents today to read about a wide range of experiences and feelings. But again what is one man's medicine is another man's poison.
R2D2,
Due to this being my first time participating in a CI discussion, I was at an uneducated disadvantage. R2D2, you did a good job of communicating and it's appreciated...
You have thoroughly convinced me that there is more to the CI controversy. I'm on your side now. Given certain requirements the parent must first meet before even setting a date for CI surgery. (This is covered later)
You replied,
I think that with a carefully thought out approach combining a CI (only if appropriate for that child) and exposure to other deaf people and language - what could be wrong with that?
Nothing is wrong with that as far as I'm concerned, otherwise I'm just being a baby about it. Taking in consideration every factor you mentioned, i.e. the higher levels of mental illness due to minority status, the need to be highly resilient and motivated...in addition to the
fact that no parent can predict whether or not the deaf child will turn out motivated despite intelligence, it does make sense to me to implant deaf children in order to help them lead much more meaningful and productive lives than they would've otherwise.
It can be quite difficult to be in the minority of everything...I'm clearly more of the exception than the "rule of thumb" given a failed CI. I picked up language and other information faster than any deaf children in the pre-school, even though my CI didn't work for me. My learning rate flabbergasted my teachers... when I was 7-years-old I already had the language skills of a 14-year-old and was winning math and reading competitions in elementary school.
If my parents been able to predict the future in terms of intelligence/motivation then I wouldn't have really needed a CI at 3-years-old. There's always the possibility the CI could have helped me out in many ways, but I could've made the choice as I got older if my parents knew that I was destined for success either way. This is not intended to show off. I'm not your typical case report. Most deaf children in hearing society, I've noticed, end up taking the special education route... a CI, however, would raise their potential of getting a good job, having friends, and being highly motivated in a hearing society... all these aspects would result in a much higher quality of life from a worldwide perspective. But remember: a CI will never remove the fact that the individual is still deaf without the CI.
Recognizing that most deaf children do not turn out to be highly motivated in hearing society, and the need to address this, there are four considerations to bear in mind:
1) it's not in favor with the odds to assume that a child will have high motivation... (pro-CI)
2) it's not possible to predict the exact outcome of a CI surgery, but with a carefully thought out approach (short-term and long-term), there are usually very positive outcomes... (pro-CI)
(note: regarding positive outcomes, I'm not 100% sure, since I do not know success rate and the measure of the positive outcomes for the average CI recipient. I'm listing things off the top of my head, even if it's not necessarily 100% correct)
3) the very high safety of the operation procedure... (pro-CI)
4) more "common opportunities" being available as opposed to few "rare opportunities"... (pro-CI)
It is a very difficult choice, but a very favorable one given the motivation trend with deaf children, in addition to the shrinking deaf population. It is as you say...
Worse - we are getting fewer in number. The numbers of deaf babies being born have dropped quite significantly due to medical advances and decreased fertility rates in general.
A realist can understand that this means being "left behind". Feelings have to be set aside to understand this concept clearly. What if it's nearly impossible to find a deaf community as large as it is today, in the future? What if it's harder to find people who can relate with you because of your deafness? It would be a lonely world and this possibility cannot be disregarded, due to the rapid progress of technology and medicine.
Parents still need to understand that their children could get frustrated later especially if the CI doesn't turn out as hoped, especially if the child doesn't have correct parental support. If the parent does not carefully plan out everything (short-term and long-term), the eventual emotional damage to the child in society can possibly be incalculable. This planning is of highest priority and needs to be done before even considering setting a CI surgery date.
Parents need to be ready
prior to setting a date of surgery regarding the following:
1. The general success level of CI operation, and doctor's estimate of potential success for the child with a CI.
2. Finding and working with an ethical and understanding CI team, and understanding CI technology trends.
3. Having a certain long-term plan for speech and CI training, as well as child's development at home and school.
4. Having a good plan to find peers with hearing loss that the child can relate to, a community that can understand what it's like being deaf (a CI child is still deaf with the CI processor turned off).
5. Understanding the child will need more attention and understanding due to things like making friends due to deafness, and lost play/homework/free time due to speech and CI training.
In addition, I strongly recommend that parents need to print off meaningful conversations like yours and mine and save them for later in case the child asks why. Then the parents have solid, supporting evidence to show what a difficult choice it had been, and that they did check things out thoroughly before giving the child the operation.
Thank you for posting, R2D2.
