I literally am dumbfounded.

[sixstrings75]

Help me, please.

There is a thread in GD with a video showing a little baby boy who just got cochlear implants and is hearing his mother's voice for the first time.

There are actually people who are AGAINST this and want to keep this child deaf for the remainder of his life.

Please explain this thinking to me. I cannot grasp it.

I find myself getting very angry. How dare a parent deny their child the best life possible? To me it is child abuse, pure and simple.

Science kicks ass again and I have to read about maintaining 'deaf' culture. WTF is that???

I'm pissed. I guess the polio vaccine was an assault on the 'polio' culture as well?

DU has jumped the shark.

I thought I've seen it all and heard everything, but this has awakened me to the ugly side of selfish, irresponsible parents.

Fuck them.

Why do you need a license to have a dog or cat, but any person can have a child? And then they can raise this child and PURPOSELY limit their quality of life for some screwed up agenda...

Talk me down here people, I'm baffled.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. Ask whether a parent should be allowed to refuse life saving treatment for their child.

Many people will say they should, even if their child has AIDS or cancer and death without treatment is a certainty.

I don't know enough about the cochlear implant issue. I know it's a hot topic, but little else.

[TZ]

2. I know in the deaf community its considered controversial

But, that doesn't give ANYONE the right to criticize the choices a parent makes for their child. Its all part of the holier than thou crowd. Outside of wanting to protect people from the dangerous stupidity of things like the anti-vax hysteria, I have a real problem with people looking down their noses at the choices parents make for their kids.

[Silent3]

4. I would certainly loudly criticize the reverse decision...

...denying the child a cochlear implant out of some stupid devotion to "deaf culture".

To me the issue isn't the sanctity of a parent to make any decision they like about their child. What parents want should carry a lot of weight, but sometimes the specifics of an issue override parental prerogative.

[GoneOffShore]

3. There is also someone yammering about "Neurotypical Bigots"

And an assault on "Autism Culture".

I'm getting more puzzled every day.

[Silent3]

5. You're talking about someone I normally agree with a lot...

...who's a pretty good skeptic all around.

To the extent that we're talking about "high functioning" autism, and the autistic person in question can make an informed decision about wanting to live with autism or not, I'd agree that it's more that society needs to adapt to a broader range of acceptable behavior and ways of living. Some autistics view their autism as having pluses as well as minuses, and they like the pluses well enough to want to keep them.

That said, if there were effective treatments for autism I certainly couldn't see faulting a parent for taking advantage of those treatments in hopes of giving their child a better life, especially when their child's autism is severe. The tricky thing is figuring out where to draw the line between giving a child a better chance in life and enforcing a too-narrow range of conformity.

When it comes to deafness, I'd say that issue lies well, well outside that fuzzy line. I've seen some people suggest leaving a kid deaf and letting him/her decide as an adult whether or not to get an implant, but that's preposterous when you take into account that fact that adulthood is way too late for the full neurological development needed to effectively process audio information. By adulthood, a huge opportunity is lost.

[GoneOffShore]

12. I also find myself on their side of the fence and agree with them

The response seemed to come out of left field for me.

I'm certainly not an advocate for medicating differences out of people, but I am in favor of giving everyone options in life and if those options happen to be CI's or medication that's fine.

[Odin2005]

16. And that's exactly why I overreacted.

"I'm certainly not an advocate for medicating differences out of people, but I am in favor of giving everyone options in life and if those options happen to be CI's or medication that's fine."

I had just gotten into an argument at work with a coworker who was bashing all of us on the spectrum, hence my angry snappishness.

[GoneOffShore]

19. I figured that there must have been something external that drove that posting.

My apologies for "yammering".

Self :spank:

[Codeine]

7. That poster is truly a wonderful addition to DU,

but I simply do not, cannot, and will not agree with his stance on that issue. It's the one place I think he's totally wrong.

[mr blur]

9. + 1

[Odin2005]

15. I was in a bad mood, sorry!

:(

[Codeine]

18. No worries.

It's one of those issues, dude. Everybody has that "thing" that gets them riled up.

[Odin2005]

14. Sorry, I was in a bad mood when I posted that!

:blush:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. lol

[realisticphish]

6. This is a BIG issue in the Deaf community

to someone who is born Deaf, there is absolutely no problem. If you've never heard, it's hard to understand what you're missing. There is a big movement in the Deaf community about hating the term "disabled" or "handicapped." They claim they just perceive the whole world visually instead of partially audibly (yet they utilize the ADA, but whatever). Personally, I think that's PC nonsense, but that is the viewpoint of many.

CIs are looked at as an attempt to "fix" them. You will rarely, if ever, find Deaf parents ok with implanting a CI. You also have to remember that CIs completely destroy any residual hearing, and are not equivalent to our own ears. It's definitely a trade off. When the batteries go out, or you remove the external portion, you are 100% deaf.

Don't scoff at Deaf culture. They are a VERY tight-knit community, with their own poetry, drama, and social norms (wait until a Deaf person tells you that you look like you've gained a few pounds, or your haircut looks like complete shit). Deaf people have to circle the wagons; hearing people either find it hard to communicate, or don't try, and they have to rely on each other for a lot. If their child has a CI, it places themselves in the "other;" they're different now, and probably won't be raised signing.

Personally, I've argued often that such attitudes are destructive. While I find Deaf culture fascinating, the basic fact is that there is something physically wrong with the body that makes them unable to hear, and calling it a "different means of perception" is just BS.

And in this case especially, parents have the right to make that decision. If the parents are hearing, OF FUCKING COURSE they want their child to be hearing too. I would still teach them some sign, just in case (and because I love sign), but its their own decision, and it's absolutely ridiculous to call them "bigots."

Sorry for the long post; finally putting 7 semesters of ASL to use :D

[Deep13]

8. It's a big issue because of attitudes and prejudices...

...not because a person is better off deaf than hearing. I really don't see it as being different from parents who refuse medical treatment for their children for religious reasons.

[realisticphish]

10. sure

there's no medical reason for not implanting a CI. But there is a big psychological one :shrug:

I didn't read the thread; were the parents deaf or hearing? If they were hearing, than there is no legitimate reason that I can think of NOT to, unless it was surgery risk, or whatever, and that's insignificant anyway, imho. And if they were deaf, then, well, its no ones business but their own

[laconicsax]

11. DU has jumped the shark?

What? Again?

[Orrex]

13. I heard that they circumcised the poor kid while he was distracted by his mother's voice.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

17. Yea, then they held him down and stabbed him with vaccine needles

But that's alright - it's nothing a couple of crystals can't cure.

[GoneOffShore]

20. As long as a pit bull is holding them.

[Silent3]

21. You know, if the kid can't hear...

...that will greatly lower his chances of surviving the solo sailing trip around the world when he turns two.

[Iggo]

22. Harumph!

:fistbump:

[EvolveOrConvolve]

24. I've read your post a couple of times, and something about it confuses me

You're literally dumbfounded? You've been found to be dumb?

I just can't parse the title, and I'm not sure why and it's bugging the shit out of me.