The genders involved don’t make a bit of difference to me. It is just plain wrong for a deaf couple to intentionally arrange to have a deaf child.
In an interview with the Washington Post, the women claimed they would make better parents to a deaf child. They believed they would be able to understand the child’s development more thoroughly and offer better guidance, and said the choice was no different from opting for a certain gender.
They also said they were part of a generation that viewed deafness not as a disability but as a cultural identity.
I’m sorry, but while I have a great deal of respect for people who, with profound hearing loss, have managed to adapt and thrive, it remains a disability, a defect, a physical handicap. It’s not a moral judgment. It doesn’t make someone less of a human, less deserving of rights or respect. But to pretend that it’s no different from gender or race seems seriously flawed, judgment-wise.
If the couple were wheelchair-bound paraplegics, and wanted a child born to them with similar limitations, would anyone seriously argue that this was just a matter of “cultural identity”? Sure, they might be able to “understand the child’s development more thoroughly and offer better guidance” under such circumstances, but, damn.
For that matter, even “cultural identity” is not a blanket blessing for such things. The issue of female genital mutilation comes to mind. Most folks I know soundly reject the idea that it’s part of certain cultures to allow this, and so it should be allowed anywhere.
Yeesh.
(Via JillMatrix)
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
As a father, I can’t imagine wishing something like deafness, or any other difficulty, for my children. This is beyond comprehension.
As a father, I can’t imagine wishing something like deafness, or any other difficulty, for my children. This is beyond comprehension.
Sorry for the double entry. I got rebuild error messages and didn’t know if I had posted or not.