A student at Goshen College in Indiana, USA, has written an insightful article for her college campus newspaper about hearing people’s attitudes on whether Deaf people should be allowed to have children – and how those views can be countered.
Olivia Ginn has taken a class in Deaf Culture and has now declared ASL Interpreting as her second major. Her article explores Deaf culture and is well worth a read.
Extract:
Hearing people, who know nothing about Deaf Culture, say that it’s ethically wrong to choose a fate for their children and that they is only predisposing them to a long life of disability and hardships. Many believe it to be a selfish act of the Deaf parents and call it a crime, disgusting, and child cruelty.
However they have one perspective that is blind to everything that Deaf Culture is and stands for. Deaf people are fully capable of accomplishing anything and adapting to anything. For example, a Deaf man just won America’s Next Top Model and will be competing in Dancing with the Stars! Many Deaf love being Deaf and, if given the choice of being born Deaf or hearing, would choose to be Deaf. They believe that if they were hearing, they would be a different person which is not synonymous with being a better person.
Read the whole article here: https://record.goshen.edu/2016/03/32679-should-deaf-people-be-allowed-to-have-children
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Roger
March 22, 2016
“Should Deaf people be allowed to have children?”
YES !!!!
You don’t need to have mine or anyone elses permission.
[ In the extract on here it reads Hearing People said a bad thing (thats how i read it) when in fact it should say one student said and (i am guessing here) a minority of uninformed idiots and internet trolls joined in as they have nothing better to do ]
Is this piece about inherited deafness, the chance of creating a deaf child; or about deaf parents being able to bring up children – deaf or hearing?
I am fairly sure Deaf parents can raise children as well as anyone else.
If its about knowing that you child may be born deaf and so this question is about creating a ‘disabled’ child then this is my opinion.
Please don’t shout at me if I am wrong just explain politely why I am wrong and I may learn something.
Several years ago I watched a TV program about a woman with an inherited brittle bone condition, she wanted children, its a biological drive. As I remember it (it was a long time ago) her child while still in nappies could just sit down and break a bone. This was a disability with a lifetime of painful breaks. At the time I admit to thinking it seemed crazy to bring a child into the world that may experience a great amount of pain.
Now I am not so sure and I am glad I haven’t been faced with that choice.
I am not sure if deafness is a disability in the same way.
It seems to be mainly a communication problem which deaf people themselves have ingeniously solved by creating a visual language.
(My BSL is woefully poor and I also failed to learn french, I am rubbish at languages.)
There could still be problems of noticing sound rather than language perception for Deaf people – not hearing an oncoming car for example.
There are a few pieces in the article that worry me a little.
Its almost as though the tone is that Deaf people should not be discriminated against (agreed) while at the same time deaf culture and all things Deaf are better?
[ …..having hearing children is a blessing, but having Deaf children is a SPECIAL blessing….. ]
sounds a little like discrimination, do Deaf parents like special Deaf babies better than hearing ones?
[…….Many Deaf love being Deaf and, if given the choice of being born Deaf or hearing, would choose to be Deaf……]
This seems like cutting off a sense to spite your face.
Really though what I think is meant here is that we like familiarity and will often choose it over the unknown. Also a worry of losing the supportive nurturing deaf community people know?
As I understand it people who are blind from birth have no concept of a colour like red, they have not experienced it to put a label on it and they do not miss it or need it.
They may say they would choose to be blind again.
[……… Deaf people are fully capable of accomplishing anything and adapting to anything. For example, a Deaf man just won America’s Next Top Model…….. ]
Amazing I would never have known that Deaf people can be….beautiful !!
Though actually I did as I have seen and met some handsome Deaf people and more annoyingly some of them were clever and witty too (unlike me)
Does the author know we have had a deaf character in Doctor Who.
Yes on a proper TV program and not a token part, a proper inspirational character.
[ ……..They argue that life is full of challenges and that being Deaf is one that has built character……..]
I am sure some Deaf people do believe this, surely there are others that don’t too?
I will be annoyed if all Deaf people are made of stern stuff and love constant adversity; personally I sometimes get a bit fed up and sit around all day eating giant bags of doritos.
I was talking to a homeless person sleeping in a doorway the other night.
Next time I see him I may tell him life is full of challenges and that being homeless is one that will build character…..
I wish I had been taught BSL at school, it would be another way of looking at the world and another way to communicate.
Irene Thomson
June 19, 2016
I firmly believe the people who are deaf/ hard of hearing should become parents if they feel confident enough. After all deaf people are HUMAN BEINGS, just like any other person. Deaf people can make much better parents than hearing ones because they have to be so much more aware of what is going on. When I was in primary school, I got to know 2 young lads. A little while later, I met their mother. As I spoke to her, I noticed that she was deaf. Her sons were very well cared for and could speak perfectly, despite their mother’s difficulties. So you see, people with hearing difficulties can be very successful parents. If you want to – GO FOR IT!!
Irene Thomson
June 19, 2016
P,S, having a hearing difficulty does NOT necessarily mean that any children you have will also have them. In addition to my schoolmates, I have heard of an actor called Richard Griffiths, whose parents both had hearing difficulties, but was very successful at his job