Cochlear Implants and Deaf Identity

For as long as there has been cochlear implants (CIs) there has been the debate on whether CIs are wonderful or evil. Are CIs the beginning of something terrific or the end of Deaf Culture as we know it.

Recently I got to sit with a high school student and talk about cochlear implants and Deafness.

Here are some ponderings. 

1. Are you opposed to cochlear implants?

Answer: No. I'm opposed to many things- Abortion, lying, cheating, stealing, etc., but an innate object is not one of them. 

2. Do Deaf cultured people outcast those with cochlear implants? 

Answer: For as many Deaf culture people that I know who loudly proclaim cochlears are evil, never have I actually met a Deaf person who literally refused to talk to someone with a cochlear. And yes I know MANY deaf with cochlears and yes most of them are my friends. Now I'm sure there is someone somewhere out there who has shunned a cochlear implant recipient but its not the norm. 

3. So do YOU want a cochlear or would you get them for your children? 

Answer: NO... and that's a loud NO. 

4. But you just said you weren't opposed to Cochlears? 

Answer: I'm not opposed to a cochlear implant HOWEVER I am opposed to something much deeper. It's the mentality that CIs make a deaf child hearing. I despise this idea. Words can not convey how much I hate this idea. 

5. But what about hearing aids? You allow those right? 

Answer: A. Hearing aids are not major surgery on your child's head. Which is not, for the most part, removeable, replaceable, and carries enormous health risks that are rarely disclosed but are much more common that many believe. 

B. We treat hearing aids as tools but we do not elevate them- I hate the idea that hearing aids can make you hearing with the same blinding passion as with CIs. 

C. I've never forced our kids to wear their aids. One child loves them and the others hate them. 90% of the time they sit in a drawer. I let me kids lead because they are not vital to our lives nor do they dictate our ability to communicate with each other. 

6. So what about adults getting CIs?

Answer: I view born deaf and late-deafened as two separate beasts. I think for someone who was born hearing, they have the capability to use CI very successfully. They were once hearing- they aren't being "changed" into something they never were before. I think if the person is old enough to make the decision for themselves and they fully understand the risks, then CI is a valid option. 

Now that being said- this is MY opinion and MY conviction. But I know many parents around me who give their babies CIs. Does this mean I hate them and never want anything to do with them and I'm secretly judging them in my head? Judge judge judge!! Bad bad bad!!! Hmmm no. 

Yes I might be sad but I still want to be your friend and I hope you'd want to be mine even if we chose not to get CIs. 

In the end its never been about the cochlear implant. It's about how parents or individuals approach Deafness. If you feel like deafness is inferior and a problem to be fixed; something less than normal- then we're going to have issues. But if you are a loving accepting parent that most parents tend to be- you just might be A-okay in my book.