Your 'biggest argument" theory is incorrect. Yes, the ci, along with the proper S&L therapy, can enable most deaf children with access to oral language skills but the goal is not to put them on "even ground" with their hearing peers but to give them the best opportunity available to maximize their oral language skills.
I have raised both a hearing and a deaf child and would never say to anyone that as well as my daughter hears with her ci that her hearing is the same as her hearing sister's. How a deaf child with a ci and a hearing child acquire oral language skills are two different routes. At the end of the day do they have similar oral skills yes, but how they got there is not the same.
That ASL is recognized as a legitimate language has absolutely no bearing on the ci decision for a child. There are many parents who expose their ci children to both oral language and to ASL for they are not and never have been mutually exclusive. However, the reality is that in the United States over 99% of the population does not use ASL as their primary mode of communication and approximately the same number utilize spoken English as their primary means of communication. Thus, the ability to provide your deaf child with the opportunity to maximize their oral language skills is giving your child a benefit. If that opportunity is through HAs, CIs or some other means then those parents should make that decision that is in thier child's best interests.
Rick
