Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!olivea!oliveb!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!26!Jack.O'keeffe From: Jack.O'keeffe@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Jack O'keeffe) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Re: deafness & genetic engineering Message-ID: <18510@bunker.isc-br.com> Date: 4 Apr 91 19:37:45 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.isc-br.com Reply-To: Jack.O'keeffe@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/26 - SoundingBoard, Pittsburgh PA Lines: 78 Approved: wtm@bunker.hcap.fidonet.org Index Number: 14636 [This is from the Silent Talk Conference] Hi Fran, FO> I didn't see the NAD paper and have to confess am not really FO> 'up' on the details of actually how the cochlear implant or the FO> genetic engineering would work, but the objections or concerns FO> that may be raised might have to do with 1.) the risks and 2.) FO> the manner of 'cure'. Fran, the objections seemed to me to be founded primarily on concern for the future of deaf culture, not on the welfare of deaf children. I understand how someone might feel that way, but does that justify suppression of research and denial of benefits to those who do not share the same feelings? NO WAY! This is still a (relatively) free society. And nobody is proposing compulsory cochlear implants or mandated genetic screening. If they were, I'd be opposed to that even more vigorously. If you want to see the NAD paper, let me know and I'll send you a copy. As I wrote to Jay, the paper impressed me as well written but not well reasoned. And when they equated cochlear implants to race-changing and gender-altering, that's when it impressed me as absurd. Of course, NAD has a perfect right to advocate whatever position they please, even if I thing they are being absurd. What they do NOT have - thank goodness - is the right to force their opinions on others. FO> I know that current 'advancements' I have read about what could FO> prevent my daughter's disability is early detection and abortion. FO> That to me is no solution. I'd rather have her alive and FO> imperfect than not alive. I would certainly agree with you there, and bless you for feeling the way you do. My own deafness in adventitious, so I cannot view it from same perspective as persons in deaf culture. But after living and coping with it for more years than you are old (ever since WWII) I still don't like it. I'd prefer good hearing. And if one of my five children were deaf, I know I would welome any opportunity for them to hear. I have friends who are culturally deaf, and I respect them. I do not force my opinions on them, and they don't force theirs on me. We even agree on most issues :-) FO> Of course this doesn't excuse flaming attacks on the bearer of FO> the information You're correct there, and I'm pleased the moderators nipped it in the bud. Such flames can have a stifling effect on the echo, especially for newcomers. JO>> ... Carpe Diem! FO> I know that many of our English words come from Latin I hate to dispel the classical scholarly image, Fran, but that particular phrase came from Robin Williams in "The Dead Poets Society". It translates to something like "sieze (or grasp) the day". Diem = day (as in "per diem"). And I believe you'll find derivatives of "carpe" in medical usage as "carpal" as in "carpal tunnel syndrome" - also some bones in the hand. :-) FO> PS: Happy Easter...almost ready to say Merry Christmas, it FO> was snowing (and sticking) here just a little while ago. We had a white one yesterday, and cold too. The leaves on the rhododendron were all rolled up like little green pencils. The Easter Bunny was wearing a fur coat when he came past here :-) ... Time wounds all heels. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!26!Jack.O'keeffe Internet: Jack.O'keeffe@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org