THANK YOU On 5/18/15, avinash shahi <[email protected]> wrote: > In the long argument over designer babies, did anyone imagine that > parents might prefer a designer disability? While we were all worrying > about the bionic offspring of the super-rich, two deaf lesbians in > America were going round sperm banks, trying to make a deaf baby. > http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/09/gender.uk1 > > > It sounds like the start of a bad joke, except that they have now > managed it twice, thanks to a friend with five generations of deafness > in his family. They claim that they are especially well equipped to > look after a deaf child, which I am sure is true, and had they adopted > one such child, or 20, we would all be praising their goodness. > > The difference, of course, is that no child should be forced inside > its parents' psychosis - whether they be from a hardline religious > sect or Deaf Lesbians. The truth is that all of us have to contend > with our parents, for good or ill, but at least we can't be committed > at birth to spending the rest of our lives as circus performers or > bank clerks, or missionaries. We have free will, and the great thing > about growing up is personal choice. > > What choice is there if your parents have already decided that you are > going to be deaf, and that deafness will be your defining identity, > just as it has been theirs? This is not the beauty of compatibility, > it is genetic imperialism. > > Deaf people, they say, have heightened senses, and a relationship to > the world not shared by the hearing population. Fine, I have no > trouble with that. But identity is going to be a big issue for the > kids of the Deaf Lesbians, because both women belong to a radical > group that defines deafness like blackness - not as a disability but > as cultural difference. > > My closest friend is black. She married a white man and their eldest > child looks like an English rose - pale skin, blond hair, blue eyes. > Nature does this kind of thing, and it is a celebration of difference > and sameness all mixed up together. Nobody knows what kind of baby any > two people will produce - and surely this is a blessing, not a bore? > Must we control everything? If the answer is yes, we are paranoid. If > either of the Deaf Lesbians in the US had been in a relationship with > a man, deaf or hearing, and if they had decided to have a baby, there > is absolutely no certainty that the baby would have been deaf. You > take a chance with love; you take a chance with nature, but it is > those chances and the unexpected possibilities they bring, that give > life its beauty. > > I am always on the side of risk, and always suspicious of control. The > more controls we have, the less free we become. Parents usually try to > control their children, and later their children hate them for it, > while busily repeating the damage themselves. > > How would either of the lesbians have felt if their own parents had > said that heterosexuality was such a beautiful thing that they had to > screen out any potential gay gene in their children, just to make sure > they had a good life? > > How would any of us feel if the women had both been blind and claimed > the right to a blind baby? Even if we transform the language of > disability into a dialectic of alternative functioning, should the > medical system support parents who want their child to suffer a > serious handicap? > > We can make our world as friendly as possible for people with > different physical capacities, but we cannot change the simple fact > that it is better to have five senses than four, however enhanced the > loss of one allows the others to be. > > I believe that hearing, like sight, is a blessing, and if we are > prepared to use technology to breed children we have deliberately > disabled, it is not only the language of disability that will have to > be radically reworked, but our entire moral perspective. > > What this case suggests is that we can do what we like to our > children, even if the consequences of our actions are irreversible. > > As lesbians, the two women should know something about choice and > personal freedom. They both practise as mental health specialists, so > I hope they have a colleague who will be able to talk it through with > two kids who turn up in 20 years, explaining that their mothers > decided that they had to be deaf. > > -- > Avinash Shahi > Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU > > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. >
Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
