NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/handicap/7768

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-20 | 7.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!bunker!sheldev.shel.isc-br.com!wtm
From: [e-mail] (Marvin Miller)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: ZYKLON-B Deaf Culture's Holocaust?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 20 Nov 92 04:44:54 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Marvin Miller)
Lines: 175
Approved: [e-mail]
X-Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference
Originator: [e-mail]

Index Number: 25783

[Note from Bill McGarry -- This is from the DEAF-L mailing list]

This is a repeat of my previous posting, but this time the wraparound mess
should be cleared up. Sorry for the inconvinence.

Marvin Miller
71302,473 CIS
DEAF.MICHIGANDER (DeafTek)

November, 1992
The Deaf Michigander

Recent 60 Minutes' coverage of a deaf girl who received the
cochlear implant touched off a debate on several issues, such as do
parents have the right to make the decision for their deaf child?
Should the implants be even allowed to be marketed? and so forth...

National Association of the Deaf President Roz Rosen brought up
concerns about the risks of the surgery, low rate of success - on
the average, fact that the implantee becomes a patient for rest of
his/her lifetime.

Those concerns are valid, but will it be in the near future? Since
the modern medicine has made tremendous leaps and bounds in last
century, it is logical to assume that it won't be long before they
come out with a perfect cochlear implant, enabling most deaf
children to hear. If that does happen, those concerns probably will
be academic.

The real issue here is do parents or any human being have the right
to commit a cultural genocide?

Anybody who took world history class in their high school years
will remember the Nazi Germany's Final Solution to the Jewish
Question. That's where the title of this editorial comes from.

Zyklon B was crystalline compound developed by Nazi scientists to
be used specifically to kill all Jewish people who were in one of
those concentration camps.

But before we go into this analogy, we should discuss the questions
that arise when one wants to implant their child.

One would dismiss the idea of giving a child a sex-change operation
if they really wanted a girl instead of a boy. One would not accept
the idea of changing the color of skin of an adopted
African-American baby so that the baby can be just like her/his
white parents and so the child can be part of the majority instead
of minority.

The Deaf community views the deaf child just like the
African-American community view an African-American baby. The
African-Americans have displayed their outrage when a white parent
adopts an African American baby. They are concerned that the child
will grow up without an identity. Both white and African-Americans
will reject the child.

The African-American community, generally speaking, will accept the
adoption if the parents intend to raise the African-American baby
as a part of the African-American culture.

By drawing this comparison does not mean we should condone this
kind of prejudice, but unfortunately... our children will bear the
brunt of the damage if we foolishly dismiss the cultural and
language elements that is unique to the child and the community
when growing up.

The members of Deaf community want very much to "adopt", in the
sense of the word, that deaf child. We share a very unique bond,
culture, language and a proud heritage.

To many hearing people, it may sound a bit absurd that a loss of
hearing is not considered as a disability.

To them, they can not imagine a world without sound, voices and music.

To us, we can not imagine a world without a rich visual expression,
voices of sign language, music of hands flying around rapidly.

To us, our deafness is a passport to a new world, a world that
demands to be explored. The word, isolation, is the furthest thing
from our minds.

Yet to the hearing people, its the dominant word in their minds.

Neither the hearing nor deaf world is better than the other. It's
just that the hearing world makes up the majority of the
population.

So did the Nazis. They made up the majority of the population, and
the leaders decided that the Jewish people didn't fit into their
grand vision of a master race. The medical technology was not as
advanced at that time as it's going to be in near future, so the
idea of "converting" all Jewish people to a nation of blonde, blue
eyes, fair-skinned Ayran race wasn't feasible by any long shot.
What was their next best solution? Exterminate them.

Whereas today its possible, medically speaking, to convert a deaf
child into a hearing one. The process might not be perfect, but in
due time, it will.

To be fair to the medical profession, this should not be taken as
an accusation. The probability of an implant doctor undergoing an
extensive Deaf culture and language sensitivity training is
minimal. The same goes for officers of the Cochlear Corporation.

If anything, they are merely guilty of ignorance.

Yet, ignorance carries a price.

Most of the doctors feel they are geninuely doing this out of best
interests for the deaf children. By doing this, they are
unintentionally carrying out something that looks and sounds
alarmingly like the Nazi's Final Solution.

No one really expects to have a deaf child, and all of the sudden,
the parents find themselves holding a deaf baby. Naturally, they
want their child to be like them, and having a deaf child does not
fit with their "plans".

The Jewish people didn't fit with the Nazis' "plan" either.

The first step in addressing this problem is to have all doctors,
surgeons and company officals trained in the Deaf culture and
language sensitivity. As Doctor Cohen on '60 Minutes' claims they
do not stand to make a lot of money out of the implants. What do
they have to lose by taking Deaf culture training?

It's alarmingly easy to carry out the implant surgery once you
rationalize this by saying, "I'm helping a person to be a whole
again." That implies that the deaf child is less of a person. In
order to implant the child, the doctor HAS to believe the child is
a less of a person without his/her hearing.

The Nazi Germany used the very same rationalization with the
extermination of the Jewish people, "They aren't truly human
beings. They are not our equals, therefore it's OK to kill them off."

To the Deaf community, whether one likes it or not, the parents
ultimately, and rightfully so, hold the final decision of what to
do with their deaf children. We must learn to respect their power,
and a heavy burden, of making the decision. We can't and shouldn't
wrest that control away from them. We should do our best to make
sure they are presented with all possible information before they
make their decision. In the other words, we, as a community, have a
responsibility to them.

Instead of shirking the responsibility by using a wide range of
excuses such as, "If the hearing people are the oppressors, why
should we help them?", "Why should I do all the sacrificing here?",
and "I don't want to deal with hearing people because I have had
enough of them," we must rise to the occassion and face the
challenge.

To the hearing community, whether one likes it or not, Deaf people
consider themselves a lingustic and cultural minority. To call them
a disabled group people is exactly like calling African-Americans
or Hispanic Americans a disabled group. In order to understand
deafness, one must be prepared to listen what the Deaf community
has to share. One can not ignore them just because they don't fit
with one's views on deafness.

The Nazi Germany thought the Final Solution to the Jewish Question
was to wipe out the Jewish people, using Zyklon B.

Was it the right solution?

Hearing society thinks the answer to the deafness is a perfect
Cochlear Implant device. Like I mentioned before, it won't be long
before they do come out with one. The resulting effect probably
will extensively damage the Deaf community.

Is it the right solution?