7-2 Short Paper: The Deaf Culture and Cochlear Implants PDF

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Received an A on this paper. We had to discuss the deaf culture and cochlear implants for deaf persons. If cochlear implants were a good option or not and why....

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7-2 Short Paper: The Deaf Culture and Cochlear Implants

SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY LILA BERG

The term Deaf culture is one of pride by the people who are a part of this community. The people involved in this culture are proud, and in their language speak on their accomplishments and goals and what they see for the future of their culture. The Deaf culture is both defined and bound by their deafness and their language. Members of this Deaf community regard themselves, their identity, and their interpretation of the world as the norm. They believe that deafness opens them up to membership in a community with its own rich history, language, and value system rather than a disability that condemns them to a world of silence. (Hladek, 2009) All individuals are entitled to their cultures. One's culture where they find support and belonging should not be taken from them but should also not be forced upon others that identify within that culture. Deaf culture is a complex culture to say if it should be considered a culture or not. The people involved in this culture have a sense of belonging as a language they communicate. However, this culture is very inclusive. There are plenty of different cultures, and who are we to take those cultures away from those feelings of belonging? Unless the culture is harmful to the people involved or people around them, that culture should not be a thing. Nevertheless, Deaf culture is a sense of belonging and a community, and it should be justified as such. In this writer's opinion, the deaf culture's argument on cochlear implants is not valid. In the article, "Deaf Culture, Cochlear Implants, and Elective Disabilities," Tucker writes, Deaf culturists argue that parents should not make decisions about cochlear implants for their deaf children, that the children should be allowed to make such decisions for themselves when they are old enough to do so. However, experience has proven that early implantation is necessary for maximum efficacy of a cochlear implant. Thus, waiting ten or fifteen years to make the decision for a child to have a cochlear implant is the same as deciding that the child will not have an

implant. If a child who is deaf is going to learn to talk, he or she must begin learning at a very early age. A person who is deaf does not learn to speak at the age of twelve or older, the age at which the child is arguably old enough to decide for herself how she wants to live her life. But a child who is deaf who learns to speak and is part of the hearing world during childhood can learn to sign later in life and join the Deaf world. (Tucker, 1998) The argument of letting the child decide on getting cochlear implants when they can make the decision is not valid. If the parents are hearing, this imposes many struggles for the families and the child. Communication will be challenging, and the child's development will suffer. Cochlear implants are a technology that was designed to better a person's life and wellbeing. These implants were developed to give deaf people a better outcome for their future regarding education, socialization, and having an occupation. Cochlear implants give a person quality of life, and arguing that this takes away from a culture does not justify the argument. Medical intervention should be a family's choice, not a cultural choice. In the video, Karina: My Cochlear Implants Did Not Take Away the Deaf Culture and Sign Language; she expresses how she was skeptical at first and was afraid of losing her sense of the culture where she felt she belonged. However, after getting the Cochlear Implants, she still felt like she belonged, and she was happy with her decision to get the implants. She was happy to hear and enjoy the simple things in life way more than without the Cochlear implants. This video was a great representation of how effective implants can be for a deaf person. When this author and many of the leaders of the Deaf culture movement were growing up, technology was very limited. Most people of our generation (born at least between 1940 and 1960) who are profoundly deaf were not able to obtain much, if any, benefit from hearing aids. (This author, for example, has never been able to wear a hearing aid.) The times have changed, drastically!

Technology has vastly improved. Today's deaf children are able to wear much-improved hearing aids or to have cochlear implants. And the technology is still improving rapidly. It is very likely that in ten to fifteen years, perhaps less, cochlear implants will have improved to the point where almost all children who are deaf could benefit very substantially from an implant. (Tucker, 1998) But as stated in Tucker's article, "nearly all" the Deaf culture leaders he knows "have had the benefit of early oral education." (Tucker, 1998) I find the deaf culture to be very biased on Cochlear Implants after reading both resource articles. Finally, if I were to choose Cochlear Implants for myself or my child, I would choose to get the implants. I would want to give myself and or my child the best quality of life possible, even if that is a procedure at a young age, so my child can develop appropriately and be able to hear. Technology and medical inventions are here to improve our quality of life. As Cochlear Implants have been tested and proven to work through trials and accredited sources, I feel that these implants are safe enough to give my child the best advantage to excel in life. As a parent, I feel that if I did not give my child every opportunity to succeed, even though medical treatment, I would be doing an injustice to my child. I would be failing him as an individual and hindering his opportunity to grow to be his own person. By choosing to allow him to hear, I would be opening so many more doors for him than holding him back in a silent world.

References 1) Hladek, G. (2009, July 27). Cochlear Implants, The Deaf Culture, And Ethics | The Institute for Applied & Professional Ethics. Https://Www.Ohio.Edu/Ethics/2001Conferences/Cochlear-Implants-the-Deaf-Culture-and-Ethics/Index.Html. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://www.ohio.edu/ethics/2001-conferences/cochlearimplants-the-deaf-culture-and-ethics/index.html

2) Bonnie Poitras Tucker. (1998). Deaf Culture, Cochlear Implants, and Elective Disability. The Hastings Center Report, 28(4), 6–14. https://doiorg.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.2307/3528607...