Cochlear Implants

I watched a documentary today about a family who struggled with the decision whether or not to let their child undergo surgery that would allow their deaf child to hear.  One brother was born deaf, as was his wife and their three children.  The other brother was born hearing; his hearing wife was born to deaf parents.  Both couples considered whether to not to go through with surgery on their deaf children.  The surgery involves a bit of technology called a cochlear implant.  It allows a completely deaf person the opportunity to hear.  When implanted in young children, the chance to gain speech skills very near those developed by hearing children dramatically increases. 

The deaf individuals reacted very strongly to the suggestion that their deafness was less than ideal.  They  were proud of deaf culture and of deaf communication, and they didn’t want their deaf children to lose that heritage.  The educators believe that a child with a coclear implant should not sign, as it can impede their ability to learn speech. 

The deaf parents at times seemed to want to do what was best for their child; at other times they made statements that made it seem like they needed to validate their own deafness.  I certainly couldn’t decide what I thought was best, so I don’t know how they could.  They were violently opposed to their brother/sister-in-law’s decision to have the surgery on their son.  They viewed it as wholesale rejection of deaf culture and (I believe) their achievements as deaf people in a predominantly hearing world. 

I couldn’t help but translate some of what I saw to fit my own experiences as a gay person.  Some of it simply can’t correlate; parents cannot know that their newborn infant will grow up to be gay.  However, I heard a lot of things that I’ve similarly heard in the gay community, particularly in relationship to genetic research and the possibility that identification of a "gay gene" could someday result in the births of no more gay people.  The cochlear implant represents the eradication of an entire culture, community, and communication system for a people that have been marginalized by the greater society.

And then the question follows: if there was a technology or drug that could change someone’s sexuality to heterosexual, would you use it?  It’s not hard to make the argument that deafness is not preferred in nature; it is just as easy to say that heterosexuality is the standard since procreation is the common goal of all living things.  And while no one questions that deaf people did not choose their deafness, they are questioned when they reject the opportunity to become hearing like the rest of us.  Why would they reject the opportunity to become "whole"?  When considering that question as a gay man, I find it not so hard to believe that a deaf person would pass on hearing.  I don’t consider myself disabled, so I can’t see myself having surgery or taking a drug to become heterosexual.

The hearing people in the documentary argue that deaf people do not experience an entire dimension of life that is sound, and so why is it fair to deny that to their children if it’s not necessary.  I would argue that there is likely a dimension of deafness that we hearing people will never experience which may be just as rewarding.  As impossible as it is for hearing people to relate the experience of sound to deaf people, so might that dimension be impossible to describe to the hearing.  I think it’s very easy to say that there is an experience of gayness that transcends the simple mechanics of sex, and that that experience is in so many ways a joyful source of inspiration and satisfaction that heterosexual people cannot achieve.  Likely there is a dimension to heterosexuality that must be similarly fulfilling, and I imagine that the powerful experience of bringing forth a new life with the person you love is a huge part of that. 

I don’t fault the hearing parents for having the surgery so that their deaf son will hear.  It’s what they know.  Parents of gay children often feel they must try to get their child to live the heterosexual lifestyle so that they will be treated as equals by the outside world.  The hearing brother said that the cochlear implants means the end of deaf culture.  There’s no implant for gayness yet, however, and I don’t know what will happen when there is.