Posted on 04/12/2008 8:18:01 PM PDT by stickman20089
Deaf couples could be allowed to use embryo-screening technology and choose to have a deaf child, after a climb-down by the Government in the face of campaigning.
Under the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, using embryo-screening deliberately to create a child with a serious medical condition - which officials had said includes being deaf - would be illegal.
Now, however, the Department of Health has agreed to cut from the Bill any reference to deafness as a serious medical condition.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Madness.
I suspect it is fear of losing control of the child to the vast interesting hearing world out here. These folks want to keep their children all to themselves. The best way to do that is to endow them with a disability that makes it very difficult for them to leave the cloistered deaf community.
A deaf control freak is just as bad as a fully able-bodied control freak.
Sick.
Why can’t the deaf parents simply teach their hearing child ASL? (Or whatever the Brits use.) If the child is in a signing instead of speaking household until he/she goes to school, he/she ought to be able to cross over between the deaf community and hearing community seamlessly. This choice is *not* about wanting their child to fit into their community — this is about not wanting the child to have something *they* don’t have. Sick.
You don't use embryo-screening to "create" a child with a serious medical condition. You fertilize a lot of eggs in vitro, allow them to develop enough that genetic testing can be done, and then implant the one(s) which would develop as deaf children and dispose of the ones which could grow up able to hear. I don't know which is worse - the desire for a handicapped child or the cold-bloodedness of their killing of the remaining children.
Excellent insight. These are the same parents who will demand a cochlear implant for their deaf baby to be paid for by the state.
My grandparents were deaf. My family has been in the deaf community for 4 generations. I understand deaf culture. This is not representative of deaf culture. It is a xenophobic reaction to being maimed.
The attitude of these parents evidences substantial mental illness. No doubt they are liberal socialists with no religious foundation and a lack of moral sensibility. They also consider themselves most enlightened and intellectually superior. Fools.
It’s not even about everyone suffering equally.
It’s about narcissism. Which is the number one problem in American society today, everyone is totally and completely in love with themselves, even all their flaws are upheld as special and meaningful.
So.....Following the logic, deaf parents with currently hearing children should be allowed to make their kids deaf with whatever sharp object is at hand.
Cue the Ellen Jamesians.
Can two blind people choose to have a blind child? What if it was dwarfism? How bad does the disability have to be before the answer is no?
IMHO, this is child abuse at conception.
I believe this is a British Newspaper writing about British lunacy. It's not the parents that are the problem. There are always any number of crazy people free to roam and do as they please. It's the medical scientists that are the problem. Any who provide this service are breaking their oath and enabling crazy people.
I have the same experience with “deaf culture”.
My sister was an ASL interpreter for many years, and was, in fact, engaged to be married to a deaf man.
He was from Singapore. Although he had many beliefs that we found to be unusual, the idea of WANTING your child TO BE DEAF was not one of them!
He thought (and we agreed) that these people were WACKOS.
I watched a program once, where this was the subject.
(Deaf or hearing child)...
Mom and Dad both deaf with a deaf child.
The father (I think??) wanted to get implants for the child and the mom (and HER mom) didn’t...said it was changing what God made..
Which sorta made sense to me until one of them said that they would have been disappointed if the child had been born hearing.
GOOD GRIEF!
I’s sure that you also experienced this:
“Deaf Culture” doesn’t look at being deaf as being a disability.
In schools this can be tricky because in order to get support to help the child learn ASL...or whatever other accommodations are necessary, the child should be in “special ed” for the funding to pass through.
But if the parent does not consider it a disability, and doesn’t WANT the child to be “special ed”...
It’s tricky...
“This is not representative of deaf culture. It is a xenophobic reaction to being maimed.”
I’m so glad to hear that it’s not like this where you are from.
But it IS like this here in the (wacko) Seattle area.
Certainly not ALL people from “the deaf culture”....but where my sister studied
http://seattlecentral.edu/programs/deafstudies.php
it was certainly not out of the norm to wish for a deaf child.
I’m certain that your Grandparents (coming from an older generation) must think something like this is INSANE!
My sister’s fiance certainly did...
Here’s an article about this practice (for both deafness and dwarfism) here in the US:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/health/05essa.html
This has been a problem here in the US also with parents. A Deaf couple a few years ago wanted to create a deaf child. That is why I thought it was from the US. Some in the Deaf community do not see their deafness as a disability but rather a cultural thing. I have worked the Deaf for several years and have known Deaf couples who celebrate when they have a deaf child.
The Lunatics are indeed running the asylum
I do not support what they are doing here but certainly I can understand where they are coming from. Just imagine yourself to be deaf and your parents never took the time to learn sign language to communicate with you. Obviously, you would feel frustrated and to prevent that from happening in the future, you'll want your child to be deaf so you could develop rapport with the child and have an equal access to communication. But of course, I do not believe that. It doesn't matter if the child is deaf or hearing, parents will be able to teach their child sign language no matter what.
The ultimate in narcissism.
That was a VERY strange post :-(
Next is screening to make sure your child is gay.
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