I believe that the majority of members here are not opposed to CI, but are opposed to the medical community touting CI as a cureall for deafness. A CI user does not become hearing by virtue of the CI, they simply become deaf with a CI. The same as a hh/deaf person who uses hearing aids is not hearing--they are deaf with HA. Unfortunately, the medical community has been guilty of leading parents of young deaf children to believe that CI and oral/auditory rehab is all that is necessary for their child. That is where the real debate lies. Yes, by all means, give your child the tools available to ensure communicative and educational success---but do not forget that they are still deaf. As deafdyke is so fond of saying, provide them with a full toolbox.
Another issue is the implantation of small children before they are able to provide input regarding the way in which they choose to live with their deafness. I personally have a profoundly deaf son who is 21 years of age and has no interest in being implanted. He has found that he prefers to live without the constant auditory input, as he finds it very distracting to his ability to fuction visually. I support him in his decision. However, if he were to change his mind, I would support him in his decision to be implanted. He is the one, after all, who has to live with his deafness, and therefore, he above all should have the right to determine the manner in which he is best able to fuction. I, as his hearing parent, do not have the right to dictate how he is to deal with something I have never experienced. There are those who disagree with my position, and feel that parents who fail to implant their children early on are neglecting their child's basic communication needs. I disagree. My son wore HA until he decided that the HA, as well, caused too much distraction. He attended speech therapy to develop oral skill to the best of his ability, and was exposed to the Deaf community from the time he was a toddler in order to acquire ASL from native signers. He attended mainstream schools early on, but transfered to a deaf school, and never wanted to return to mainstream settings for school. He now attends a hearing university with an interpreter for classroom activities, and is very successful, happy, and well adjusted. But that is just my experience. There are others who have differing views of implantation, and their experience is as valid as mine as it relates to their children. As long as the CI is not used as an attempt to make a child hearing, instead of recognizing that it is an assistive amplification devise and the child is still and forever will be deaf, neither I, nor most parents I know, disagree with a parent's decision to implant.