Support for the Cochlear Implant, and its opposite

[PUDL]

how do you know that in a few years people won't see disabilty as OK or even desireable?

Imagine in the future, a parent is told that their new baby is deaf. The parent is given 2 options.

First, the parents can learn a second language, send the child to a special school, join a new culture, and possibly provide special training to the child so the child can speak and lip read.

Second, the parents can get an MRI and other tests to determine the extent of the problem and medical procedures to correct the hearing loss.

The second choice is easy. It allows the child to join with the parents, their family, and their culture. Why would any hearing parent choose the first?

Except for an extreme minority, only deaf would view deafness as desireable. I do not understand how this could change in the future.

As for the fiction in my science fiction consider a few of the following medical science excerpts.

Research by Dr. Stefan Heller and his colleagues show that primitive stem cells can be coaxed to grow into mature hair cells.

Scientists have engineered ear cells which look and act like the real thing and could be transplanted into humans in the near future to arrest hearing loss or even regenerate long-lost hearing.

The work on cell transplantation was presented by Matthew Holley, Professor of Sensory Physiology at the University of Sheffield, who has established new laboratory techniques for studying ear development. He envisages cells working in tandem with cochlear (inner ear) implants to restore hearing by promoting nerve regeneration.

"Cochlear implants, small devices which stimulate the auditory nerve, work very well in a limited way," he explained. "They can't be given to long-term deaf people because their auditory nerves have degenerated too far. Replacement nerve cells could improve the electrical contact between the implant and the brain. This opens up the prospect of making implants more effective and using them on a much wider scale. We may be in a position to make these advances in 3-5 years time."

Regrow the ear, fix nerves. The thing about science fiction is that it often becomes science fact. Deafness will be cured. Hearing will want hearing babies. Deaf can either try and force hearing to keep having deaf babies, or they can take the responsibility upon themselves.

Deaf by choice, not by chance,
-Oculog

 

[deafdyke]

Except for an extreme minority, only deaf would view deafness as desireable. I do not understand how this could change in the future.

Oculog.....it's sort of like how back in the old days being black wasn't that great, and a lot of blacks wanted to be white...nowadays we have black pride and it's OK to be black. Who knows? Maybe the same thing will happen with disabled people....Dis Rights activists simply see disabilty as just another difference like hair color or skin color or whatever. They don't view disabilty as "bad" or good....it just IS! In the past disabilty has been seen as something that holds someone back,(and it's still seen that way by the majority of nondisabled folks) However, dis rights folks see disabilty as more of an attitude...they don't think that the condition holds them back...it's more the way they are treated by other people!
Say hair cell regeneration is sucessful.....if a parent decides to give their kid hearing, then what's to stop them from giving them blue eyes instead of the brown eyes that they were born with? What's to stop them from giving them bellybutton surgery or that foot surgery where women have parts of their feet chopped off in order to fit into high heels? Curing congetial disabilties is just one step on the way to eugenics and designer children!
I am aware of the haircell research....however, that's in the lab...they've found lots of cures for things in the lab...but they haven't worked well in the real world!

The thing about science fiction is that it often becomes science fact.

No...According to Orwell we were going to be living in a communitst hellhole by 1984....according to some people years and years ago, by now we should be space-age travelers like in the Jetsons!
Oh, and almost forgot.......What about genetic deafness? Maybe those with genetic deafness,(or congetial deafness) also have a desirable trait that wouldn't be there if it weren't for their deafness. Sort of like the way those with cystic fibrosis were protected against dystentry b/c of their genes...or the way those with sickle cell trait were protected against malaria.

 

[PUDL]

deafdyke, you can hope that improvements in hearing replacement stop. And you can hope that the hearing population becomes enlightened. I just don't see it.

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National Campaign for Hearing Health

Each year, more than 12,000 infants in the United States — one in 300 — are born with a hearing impairment. Of these, 4,000 are profoundly deaf. In fact, hearing loss is the number one birth defect in the United States. Despite this, only 86.5 percent of babies are currently screened for hearing loss at birth. To ensure every baby gets a hearing healthy start in life, 38 states and the District of Columbia have adopted policies or mandates supporting Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI), which can test a baby's hearing abilities shortly after birth. Early detection is vital to diagnosis and intervention.

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Infant hearing screenings rise
By In-Sung Yoo, USA TODAY
7/7/2003

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-07-07-infant-usat_x.htm

A nationwide effort that began just four years ago to have all infants screened for hearing defects is fast approaching its goal of testing all newborn babies.

If problems are detected in the first weeks of life, new audiology devices and training can allow children to develop speech skills at a pace comparable to that for children without the hearing problems, researchers say. Without proper auditory training after a diagnosis is made, screening is all for naught, Cooper says.

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Since 90% of the deaf population comes from hearing families, doesn't anyone see a problem here? This can not and will not continue. Unless something proactive is done, the deaf population will start to shink rapidly. Instead of the baby boom, the deaf will face the baby bust.

The answer is not to try and force hearing to have deaf children, but for the deaf to have the deaf children themselves.

Deaf by choice, not by chance,
-Oculog

 

[Levonian]

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with implanting kids with auditory nereopathy or who don't get ANY benifit from hearing aids...like the kids who only get vibrations from hearing aids or who hear at 80 dcb or 70 dcb with aids but when we have very good hearing aid users being implanted....that's just really messed up! I read in Volta Voices that one of the ODA who writes a column for VV, is considering a CI to help make difficult listening sititions easier...I read that an adult got implanted b/c she couldn't talk on the phone (and? There are voice carry over phones, TYYs and other alternatives.) What next? Are they going to claim that the real words to Louie Louie and Smells Like Teen Spirit can be decipered by CIs?

Dammit, deafdyke—my conscience will no longer permit me to let you wander aimlessly in the abyss of your own ignorance. You shall know the truth, and it shall set you free.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_316

 

[deafdyke]

Since 90% of the deaf population comes from hearing families, doesn't anyone see a problem here? This can not and will not continue. Unless something proactive is done, the deaf population will start to shink rapidly. Instead of the baby boom, the deaf will face the baby bust.

Oculog.....there's a small percentage of hearing families who raise their kids either exclusively with Sign (I know of two Deaf girls from hearing families who were raised exclusively with Sign) or with TC.(Severeal of my hearing friends are raising their young deaf/hoh kids to be bilingal with both speech and Sign!) Not all hearing families choose oralism...and as a matter of fact, I remember reading somewhere that even with the new CIs and the advancement in technology, only about 30% of the pedatric deaf population is 100% oral.(and actually that does make a lot of sense....only about 10% of deaf kids are "HOH" with aids on and only about 20% of implantees are superstars) Research has indicated that most orally raised/educated deaf do eventually pick up ASL as a second language. Very few oral deaf kids remain purely oral, b/c the oral route is incredibly frustrating and does not allow for 100% access to language, the way ASL does. (I say this as someone who is HOH)
I think the debate now is over which language should be the child's first language.
Actually Lev, yes, those are the offical lyrics to Louie, Louie but can anyone make out the lyrics when it's being sung?
Didn't think so!