jillio
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2006
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Being deaf, I can not say I know any benefits of what it would be like to hear. Neither can this deaf couple, who I am appalled could think it would be better to have a deaf child. ...and I know that I miss out on things because I do have a disability...I can observe that yea I communicate, but I have to put down the objects that I hold in my hands in order to use them to talk to you. This does not appear as easy for me as it is for the person who can talk, and drive a car safely. I think the desire for a deaf couple to have have a deaf child is selfish on the parent's part. I wish I could hear...especially if hearing is as beautiful as seeing. ...and not only that, but I received government funds for my disability...to go to school. I am uncertain of UK laws...but if the gov supports though who are disabled on paper, regardless of whether the couple feels it's a disability then the couple is also taking funds for a child who they genetically manipulated to "suck the system". If the gov. were to reverse the law to allow this couple a "guarenteed" deaf child...I would be infuriated that they give this child money from others tax money for a chosen disability of the parents...(this is completely unfair to the child who neither chose to be deaf, nor chose to have to pay when they should be getting a relatively free college eduation due to their rightfully owned disability). I'd like to see the parents of these kids turn down the money...trust me they wouldn't. On the other hand, I am also a biologist...
Manipulating an embryo so that it does not have the best chance at a richly enhanced life and long healthy life would be wrong. People evolve...the best traits get carried from one generation to the next based of the gene pool. ...by deliberately chosing to have a deaf child, would be regression of human genetics. We should not allow this to happen. If it were to happen naturally (during natural conception) then so be it...but to chose it is completely wrong. IFV should be used to prevent deafness, blindness, down syndrome, heart disease, cancer...and others. I believe I can say this without being attacked... I am deaf.
Who is to say that this deaf child would not have the "best chance at a richly enhanced life and long healthy life" simply by virtue of his/her deafness? These parents, quite obviously, are living a richly enhanced life. They are successful, well educated, and creative. They have a better chance at raising a well adjusted deaf child who is well educated, successful and creative than do hearing parents who never graduated from high school, work for minimum wage jobs when they can find one, and haven't opened a book in the past 15 years have of raising a hearing child with a richly enhanced and long healthy life.
Is it wrong for hearing parents to choose hearing embryos? That is what is at issue here. If hearing parents are allowed to choose the hearing status of the embryo used for IVF, why aren't deaf parents allowed the same choice?