Jessica Padgett

Adam Padgett

English 102

31 January 2017

Inquiry Weight of the Cochlear Decision

Over the span of your life time, you interact with and encounter thousands of people from

all different backgrounds, all experiencing the world differently and not one experience is the

same. I find myself to be a very empathetic person and I am always attempting to see things from

another perspective than my own. So when we were assigned to read the article on cochlear

implants effects on the deaf community for the blog post, it sparked my interest in understanding

the world from another point of view. I personally have partial hearing loss in one of my ears

from an accident and I can say that it has affected me in my day to day life, but not as drastically

as those who are born without the ability to hear at all. I feel personally that my hearing loss is

not significant enough to need a hearing aid, but I know that if I ever did need assistance that the

options are there. For those born without the ability to hear, is the cochlear implant the right

solution, or should they go on living in what to them is normal? and if it is decided by

themselves or in the case of a child if it is chosen for them, what effects is this going to have on

them and the deaf community?

So the first article that I read, Cochlear Implants, The Deaf Culture, And Ethics- A

Study of Disability, Informed Surrogate Consent, And Ethnocide, Ethnocide is discussed

throughout and it defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of the culture of an ethnic

group. The article is not on the side of the deaf community and it goes into detail about how the

deaf communitys morality behind why the implants are problematic is problematic in itself. To
the deaf community, when a child receives the Cochlear Implant (CI) it is a means to a culture's

end. In the article it states, each deaf child exists to fulfill the cultures hopes and dreams, not

necessarily the childs hopes and dreams. If all deaf-born infants are implanted and choose the

hearing world, then it will be the demise of a culture, It also says, the autonomy of the

individual ethically trumps the autonomy of the group. If the group or the culture radically

infringes on the choices available to the child as she grows up, then respect for the individual

requires support for the child, even if the choice will eventually result in the death of a group or

culture. The article goes on to discuss the decision making for the parents with deaf-born

children as well and how it is their responsibility as the caregivers to supply the child with as

many opportunities as possible and to maximize the childs future life fulfillment. With that

being said, is their future selection of a community of both social and living, a marriage, and

even a career going to be limited because of a single genetic trait? In the end of the article, it is

clear that cochlear implants or any other aid provide an opportunity for a more diverse future and

are morally encouraged.

The next article I encountered was more on the pathos side of the spectrum. It is an article

about a family with a soon to be three-year-old son that has suddenly lost his ability to hear and

his familys decision making that followed. The son, Alex, became eligible for the CI after he

lost hearing in both ears and his speech and language scores were discovered to be well below

what the average was among his peers. The doctors consulted the mother and explained that the

age of three was a very critical point in a childs development; it marked a critical mark in the

development of language and if the implant were to be used it needed to be soon. So with the

clock ticking, the mother went to the internet for some answers as to what this implant would

mean for her son and his future. She discovered the divide between the hearing worlds opinion
of this amazing medical technology and the opinion of the Deaf community. The mother

weighed the pros and cons of the situation and ultimately decide that she wanted her son to grow

up with as many opportunities in the future as possible. Four months before Alexs birthday he

received the implant and then one year later it was time to measure the progress that he had made

since the discovery of his loss of hearing. The test consisted of flip charts, pictures, games,

repetition of sentences and simple tasks where Alex needed to simply follow verbal instructions.

The scores were added up and Alex was placed into percentiles compared to his peers and after

12 months he went from 6th percentile to 63rd percentile for expressive language and 88th

percentile for receptive language. This was an amazing improvement and it proved that the

implant can be a positive and promising option for children.

I have found out just through these two articles quite a lot. I have read from the

perspective of science and logic, and I have read from the perspective of a mother trying to make

the right decisions for her young child. I believe that the next step for me would be to find a

couple articles written from the perspective of the culturally deaf. This perspective may be a little

harder for me to understand, simply because I am not a part of that culture and I until recently

didnt know that there was such a divide behind the decisions of getting the cochlear implant. I

believe though, that there is much more behind this topic than what Ive read so far.

Jessica,

I think this is really great topic, and I think it is great that you have some degree of personal

investment in this research. With regard to your inquiry, the answers to the question of if

children should get them is great, but I worry about the answer to this question simply boiling

down to a personal decision the family has to make. So try to avoid this kind of stance as you

move forward. What might be really interesting is researching the disagreements among the deaf
community in general. I can see you writing a paper that takes the article we read in class a step

further in some way. You could ask yourself if the article didnt satisfactorily answer a question

or problem. In either case, I think this is a good start and look forward to seeing how this one

progresses.