Thread: Deaf Activism?
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Old 08-22-2005, 12:55 PM   #3 (permalink)
hevusa
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Re: Deaf Activism?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabris
I saw something about deaf activists come up on a discussion and googled "deaf activists" to find out more. Apparently, they don't want people getting cochlear implans because deafness is a culture? Doesn't that seem like being wheelchair-bound is a culture, as well?

Quote:
Sound and Fury focuses on the conflicts in one Long Island, New York, family: A deaf couple, Peter and Nita Artinian, refuse to let their 5-year-old daughter, Heather, get an implant -- much to the dismay of Peter’s hearing parents. "If somebody gave me a pill that would make me hearing, would I take it? No way," Peter Artinian asserts in sign language. "I’d want to go to a hospital and throw it up and go back to being deaf. I want to be deaf....If the technology progresses, maybe it’s true deaf people will become extinct, and my heart will be broken. Deaf culture is something to value and cherish. It’s my culture." Other deaf people in the film echo his views, praising "deaf culture" and deriding attempts to cure deafness.
Um? Firstly, it's a couple's own choice whether to fix their deafness, so while I think every deaf person should get them, I go no further than that. For your 5 year-old daughter, though? Why would you force her into that, at her own detriment? I forget the case name but about adecade or so there was a case about a young Mormon boy needing a blood transfusion, but the parents refused to let him get one for religious reasons. The case went to court and the doctors were granted permission to give him the blood. Anyone else's thoughts on deaf as a "culture"? I think it's lunacy at this point. I've never seen someone in a wheelchair be proud and happy they're in a wheelchair.

I'm sure there is a very strong deaf culture that they take great pride in. And why not?? It is a language all its own.

If two deaf parents have a child who is naturally deaf I see no problem in letting them raise that child deaf as they see fit. When the child becomes an adult they can choose if they want the operation or not.
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