Deaf People
Deaf Demand Right to Designer Children After reading this topic, the first thing that popped into my head was, "Oh my good, that 's awful." After this thought, I decided to take a couple days to think about it, read up on it, and try to come up with some reasons as to why parents would want to do this. I came up with a few and I still don 't understand how people could think like this.
In the first article I read, there were parents that said "Creating made-to-order babies with genetic defects would seem to be an ethical minefield, but to some parents with disabilities it just means making babies like them." (Tanner) I then took a moment to think about this, and my head started to hurt. This type of selfishness is usually limited to pre-pubescent children and some young adults, but most teenagers have more regard for others than these parents. These children have no choice in whether or not they are going to be deaf, and have to live with the choice their parents made for them. An analogy you could use is the crack babies, born addicted to cocaine because their mothers chose to do drugs. If someone wants to be deaf, like their parents, they can have surgery to remove the necessary parts of their ears, just like somebody could chose to do cocaine, just like their parents. If any logical or reasonable person who is deaf was given the choice of whether or not they wanted to be deaf, they would all choose no.
I feel like one thing these deaf parents don 't think about is what their children will say to them when they find out their parents chose them to be deaf. I have been wondering if parents would try to keep their kids from finding out they chose their disability for them. If I had made this choice for my child, I would definitely try to keep it from my child. I would not be able to face my child after they had found out.
After reading some more articles, I found another statement that defends these parents as they choose to have a deaf baby. The statement
In the first article I read, there were parents that said "Creating made-to-order babies with genetic defects would seem to be an ethical minefield, but to some parents with disabilities it just means making babies like them." (Tanner) I then took a moment to think about this, and my head started to hurt. This type of selfishness is usually limited to pre-pubescent children and some young adults, but most teenagers have more regard for others than these parents. These children have no choice in whether or not they are going to be deaf, and have to live with the choice their parents made for them. An analogy you could use is the crack babies, born addicted to cocaine because their mothers chose to do drugs. If someone wants to be deaf, like their parents, they can have surgery to remove the necessary parts of their ears, just like somebody could chose to do cocaine, just like their parents. If any logical or reasonable person who is deaf was given the choice of whether or not they wanted to be deaf, they would all choose no.
I feel like one thing these deaf parents don 't think about is what their children will say to them when they find out their parents chose them to be deaf. I have been wondering if parents would try to keep their kids from finding out they chose their disability for them. If I had made this choice for my child, I would definitely try to keep it from my child. I would not be able to face my child after they had found out.
After reading some more articles, I found another statement that defends these parents as they choose to have a deaf baby. The statement
Cited: "Culture." American Heritage Dictionary. 14 Feb. 2008 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture>. Hagan, Pat. "Falling on Deaf Ears." New Scientist 28 Aug. 2004. 15 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jasonlamberton.com/external/FallingOnDeafEars.htm>. ""Ick!" Versus Ethics, Part 2: Designer Disabilities." Ethics Scoreboard (2007). 15 Feb. 2008 <http://www.ethicsscoreboard.com/list/ick2.html>. Tanner, Lindsay. "Some Ponder 'Designer ' Babies with Mom or Dad 's Defective Genes." USA Today 21 Dec. 2006. 14 Feb. 2008 <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2006-12-21-designer-disability_x.htm>. "‘Designer ' Babies with Made-to-Order Defects?" MSNBC 21 Dec. 2006. 13 Feb. 2008 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16299656/>.