Reply #139: But cochlear implants don't necessarily cure deafness

[Banazir]

But cochlear implants don't necessarily cure deafness to begin with. And when they don't work, you can have all sorts of nasty side-effects as well as hearing annoying and distracting noises but still be unable to understand any of it. The opposition to it isn't so easily dismissed, especially since there has for so long been a movement to keep deaf people from learning sign language, all of which sometimes leaves them with no language later on if their parents have pinned all their hopes on hearing aids, implants, lipreading, and speech when those things don't necessarily work.

Also of course a person who has been completely deaf their whole life isn't likely to benefit from being cured any more than a blind person is. By that time the brain is not used to processing that sense, may be using that area of the brain for something completely different, and the result is a sensory overload and sense of mental disorganization that I doubt anyone who hasn't experienced it can imagine. That's why some early-blinded people after being cured in adulthood beg to be blind again: Having all this visual noise coming at you and being able to understand next to none of it can be more unpleasant than not seeing at all.

So, again, the issues are not simple.