Genetically creating deaf children

Interpretrator

Interpretrator

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An interesting post about the issue of deliberately creating children with deafness or dwarfism. The doctor quoted and the writer don't understand the concept of deafness as something other than a medical diagnosis, but it's still worth reading, including the comments.

Urbanagora: A Brave New World
 
Well......disabilities that can be adapted to, are fine. There's a HUGE diffy between having a "classic" disabilty, and having something that can REALLY negatively impair your quality of life.....like Aliezheimers, cancer, Huntington's, depression, autisim etc. If I have a dhh kid, I won't even blink. They can adapt to life without hearing like a hearing person. Just like kids born blind/low vision can adapt to life without seeing like a sighted person, or a person with physcial disablities, can adapt to life without getting around like a person without physcial disablities.
 
deafdyke said:
If I have a dhh kid
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But the question isn't what happens if you have a DHH kid...it's whether or not it is ethical to try to specifically cause your kid to be DHH.

I'm not taking sides, I just thought it was an interesting post.
 
Reiterating some of the comments from the link...

We do live in a capitalist society that enables us to make personal choices for our lives. All too often, we neglect to consider the long-term consequences and ethics our choices will impact on not just ourselves but society and future generations as well.

The freedom to produce disabled babies could force society to rethink and perhaps reorganize itself on every level-- socioeconomic, educational, even political. On a more positive note, society could become more receptive, sensitive and more accommodating to those who do not conform to the able-bodied model. But the downside is that there could be a widening gap in the hierarchy of human evolution, however unstable and unpredictable it may be.

Some Americans, I've noticed, especially those of the more educated and priilveged crop, tend to think of future in terms of opportunity cost. They'll burn holes in their pockets to create designer babies, so that their children may enjoy life better just because they're smarter and more beautiful. I don't think that's an absolute guarantee and I certainly don't think it does the world any good when it's already dying.

What parent wouldn't want the best life for her/his children? I'd feel the same way about mine, but I would be more concerned about being the best parent than bearing non-disabled or disabled children when that day comes.
 
But the downside is that there could be a widening gap in the hierarchy of human evolution,
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On the other hand.........maybe that gap might leave the dhh folks at an ADVANTAGE. Like dhh folks might eventually develop really good vision or whatever to "compensate" for having little to no human range hearing.
I find this subject WICKED funny! I mean..........think about it. There are kids out there who are essentially "designer babies" ....and yet there are people who are deliberatly chosing to have babies that have not exactly desirable traits. I find that hilarious...........and I mean......who knows? Maybe that's the way to go.....after all, even with "purebred" dogs that have all sorts of desirable traits, those dogs still have a lot of undesirable traits. No amount of breeding can get rid of those not desirable traits.
 
There are those who would disagree with you on the autism thing (though I myself am neurotypical, but it's not an uncommon sentiment in the autistic community that NTs are a bit weird, and not in a good way). Same for depression (or rather, disabilities that include depression as a symptom). Similarly, there are parents who are going to feel that deafness is something that can't be adapted to (perfectly, anyway). I suspect most disabilities have people who feel both ways.

This "classic disability" thing you keep talking about doesn't really exist, and I think it comes uncomfortably close to being simply a euphemism for "actually" disabled, for declaring a given set of disabilities as "legitimate". Blue over at The Gimp Parade wrote an excellent post about the disability hierarchy (actually, most of her stuff is excellent). There's quite a bit of stuff if you google for "disability hierarchy", but that should work as a start.
 
Interesting to read this and how some people in this blog perceive deaf culture and deafness itself. I laughed when that one person said "Deaf people, however, are no fun at all." That is the kind of ignorance I am so fed up with!
 
This "classic disability" thing you keep talking about doesn't really exist, and I think it comes uncomfortably close to being simply a euphemism for "actually" disabled, for declaring a given set of disabilities as "legitimate".
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*shakes head* Um no...... What I'm saying when I use the term "classic" disablity is more....not "legit" disablities......but more.... disablities that can be adapted to and lived with. People who use wheelchairs/hearing aids/ or who are blind/low vision have the abiltity to live rich full lives in spite of having something that non disabled people would consider a grave impairment.
Make sense now? I'm not saying that someone with MR/depression/autism can't live rich full lives...........but it is VERY difficult for them to adapt to their conditions. It's hard to explain.....but most physical disablities don't really impact a person, in the way that mental disablities like MR/ depression etc do.
 
I read that in our newspaper the other day. Very interesting article, but I'm not sure of what I think of it.
 
I think it's wrong to intentionally create babies with disablities (deaf, blind, dwarfism, etc). I also think it's wrong to create designer babies as well.
 
deafdyke said:
Well......disabilities that can be adapted to, are fine. There's a HUGE diffy between having a "classic" disabilty, and having something that can REALLY negatively impair your quality of life.....like Aliezheimers, cancer, Huntington's, depression, autisim etc. If I have a dhh kid, I won't even blink. They can adapt to life without hearing like a hearing person. Just like kids born blind/low vision can adapt to life without seeing like a sighted person, or a person with physcial disablities, can adapt to life without getting around like a person without physcial disablities.
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So, you think it's ok to create kids with classic disablities such as deafness or blindness? You gotta be kidding me. :eek3:

If my parents actually intentionally created me to be deaf, I'd be pretty mad at my parents! If my parents created me to be blind, I would be so even more pissed at them for that! No matter if one can adapt to life being deaf or blind, it is STILL wrong to INTENTIONALLY create kids with such disablities.
 
I think it is wrong to create babies how u want them to be whether it is a "perfect" baby or a "disabled" baby.

As for screening out fetuses...if it has life threatening conditions, I dont think I could sit back and do nothing. If I had the power to eliminate them while in the womb, I would.
 
Why in the world would anyone intentionally do that??? That is just WRONG!!!:jaw:
 
So, you think it's ok to create kids with classic disablities such as deafness or blindness?
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No, I did not say that. "Designer is designer"...........Me I think it's up to God or nature or whatever Powers that Be to decide whether or not a baby has certain features or whatever.
But compared to really horrible things like Tay Sachs, Aleizheimer's, Huntington's and other things like that, classic disabilities are NOTHING.


There are those who would disagree with you on the autism thing (though I myself am neurotypical, but it's not an uncommon sentiment in the autistic community that NTs are a bit weird, and not in a good way).
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Yeah I know about that. I find it ironic thou, that a lot of autis are all "rah rah rah autisim is simply a way of being".....and then in their next breath they bitch and complain that they have no friends and it's SOOOOOOOO HARD being autistic!
 
deafdyke said:
Yeah I know about that. I find it ironic thou, that a lot of autis are all "rah rah rah autisim is simply a way of being".....and then in their next breath they bitch and complain that they have no friends and it's SOOOOOOOO HARD being autistic!
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Hmm ... and yet here we are on a forum where it is generally accepted that deafness (and yes, I'm intentionally not capitalizing that) is simply a way of being, yet also talk about the ways in which it's difficult to be deaf in a hearing world. There's a very strong parallel between that and living as an auti in a neurotypical world, and I'm surprised you don't see it.

I'm not saying that someone with MR/depression/autism can't live rich full lives...........but it is VERY difficult for them to adapt to their conditions. It's hard to explain.....but most physical disablities don't really impact a person, in the way that mental disablities like MR/ depression etc do.
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I'm physically disabled, and this is my primary dis identification. But I've also dealt a lot with depression - only recently diagnosed - and I have a lot of friends and colleagues with mental disabilities, so this is not something I'm unaware of. I don't think this attitude of yours is any better than that of a TAB who sees what you would call a classic disability as horribly crippling. The disabled community has a lot of work to do to overcome its internal prejudices. "Piss on pity" is not just for the physically disabled.
 
wish they can alter my genetic makeup into an hearing genes i m deaf only by genes i want that to be fix!!!!! mind yo u i dont hate deaf cultures i just hate being deaf thats all
 
If I found out that my parents "made" me deaf or short, I would be very upset.
 
is simply a way of being, yet also talk about the ways in which it's difficult to be deaf in a hearing world. There's a very strong parallel between that and living as an auti in a neurotypical world
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not quite......
I see some discussion of being dhh in a hearing world, but it's addressed in more of a " it's not really perfect....we still have our problems. sort of like the way people who are black or whatever may raise issues or concerns about being a minority in a white majority country. I see the autistic community parrelled more in the oral deaf community, rather then in the Deaf community. Like they are all " oh it's so fablous being oral deaf and part of the hearing world" and they they complain about stuff like accesibilty and that they don't get something equalivant to an asl 'terp in the real world.

ismi....i'm not saying that mental illness or mental things aren't real disabilities. I also have depression/bipolar tendancies......i'm just saying that mental conditions affect people very differently from physcial conditions.
 
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