Cochlear Implant Pros And Cons
Mikaela Del Rio
ASL 1
Mrs. Martin
20 January 2015
Cochlear Implant RST
Imagine a world where no one changed anything about themselves, in the fear of changing their identity. No one would have braces and there would be a lot of crooked teeth.
Nobody would get haircuts, and there would be a lot of unmanageable long hair. But if you really think about it, these things could never change who you are, they only enhance what you can become. People get braces so nobody makes them uncomfortable when they 're older about their crooked teeth. It doesn 't change them it just makes their smile brighter. People get haircuts to express who they are, or who they want to be, but it doesn 't change who they actually are, it just makes them look the way they want to. The same thing goes for a cochlear implant. It …show more content…
enhances the possibilities of hearing for a deaf person, but it will never change who they are because they will always be deaf. That 's why deaf people should get cochlear implants because they will not change their identity.
In the movie Sound and Fury a young girl’s parents restrain her from getting a cochlear implant in the fear that it will change her identity in the deaf world. There is also a young boy whose parents are judged and tormented for deciding to implant him with a cochlear implant.
Both families want their children to play a role in the deaf community, but both families are told that with a cochlear implant, that could never happen. The parents of the young girl are introduced to another young girl who was implanted to see if it was really right for their daughter. The young girl was so accustomed to hearing that she didn 't sign and she spoke clearly.
It was clear that the little girl most likely wasn 't aware she was even deaf. This upset the parents and pretty much made their decision for them; they would never implant their child. Ironically six years later the daughter, along with her siblings and her own mother get the implants and say how much their lives have improved. They said it made their daughters life easier and they regretted not doing it when she was younger. And of course the girls role in the deaf community did not change, but she gained a spot in the hearing world as well, which is what a cochlear implant really does.
Now on the other side of that family, a deaf child is born and his parents decide to implant him, but receive a lot of hate from the deaf community. Part of the fact of so much resentment towards the device is that around the time the film "Sound and Fury" was made, the cochlear implants were just being introduced and it really offended the deaf community that someone made something to fix deafness. It made them feel as if people thought of deafness as a disability. They wondered why anyone would want to change themselves from being deaf and being part of such a wonderful community. The mother of the daughter who was the mother of
the deaf child even called her own daughter "a lousy daughter". In reality the mother wasn 't implanting his son because she wanted to rebel against her parents, it was because she knew that although deafness is not a disability it is also not an enhancement to your life. She knew that her boy would have many more opportunities in life if he could hear, and although that sounds like it 's shaming deafness, it isn 't. No matter whether you implant your child or give him a hearing aid, it will never change them, just help them reach their potential …show more content…
easier. In the article
Letting the deaf Be Deaf: Reconsidering the use of cochlear implants in prelingually deaf children it expresses the difference between a hearing parent deciding whether or not to get their child implanted and a deaf parent deciding whether or not to get their child implanted. The choice is easy for a hearing parent because deciding if they want the baby to hear is basically just saying let it be like us.
While a deaf parent is the exact opposite. Deaf parents are the ones that have to make the decision to change their baby’s life, by making them hearing, different than themselves. “T he cochlear implant is intended to help the deaf child ultimately learn an oral language and, in so doing, to facilitate the assimilation of the implantusing child into the mainstream hearing culture” (Crouch). While this statement is correct, the implant doesn’t have to completely destroy deaf culture for the child. The child should still be taught sign language, and be introduced to people in the deaf community. If it is so important for the parents that their child be part of the deaf community, while still being in the hearing world, they will put in the effort.
In the article Sound and Fury; or, Much Ado about Nothing? Cochlear Implants in
Historical Perspective it states “Cochlear implants are only the latest example of medical interventions promising to cure deafness” (Edwards). This statement itself is a brief summary of why the deaf community was so resentful towards the device in the first place. When hearing people say that there is a cure for deafness, it obviously upsets deaf people.
They don’t view themselves as having a disease, and they really don’t have one, but as soon as someone from the hearing world challenges that opinion, all hell breaks loose. The deaf community could have just rejected the idea of the cochlear implants all together, but once people understood it wasn’t a cure, just additional help, they started to accept it. When deaf people heard the word cure, they panicked. They worried there would be no more deaf culture, and that the deaf community would die off. Cure meant change to them, that everything in their lives would change, which is why some people think the implants will change their identity. But that will never happen because no matter what, you will always be deaf. If you get hearing aids, once you take them off you’re no longer capable of hearing. The same thing goes for the implant. The implant itself is not capable of wiping out a culture, it is the responsibility of the parents of the deaf children to keep the culture and the community alive. Which is why deaf people should get cochlear implants because they will not change their
identity.
Works Cited
Sound and Fury
. Dir. Josh Aronson. Prod. Josh Aronson and Roger Weisberg. Artistic
License, 2001. DVD. Crouch, Robert A. "Letting the Deaf Be Deaf: Reconsidering the Use of Cochlear Implants in
Prelingually Deaf Children."
ProQuest
. N.p., JulyAug. 1997. Web. 17 Jan. 2015. Edwards, Rebecca AR. "Sound and Fury; Or, Much Ado about Nothing? Cochlear Implants in
Historical Perspective."
ProQuest
. N.p., Dec. 2005. Web. 17 Jan. 2015.
ASL 1
Mrs. Martin
20 January 2015
Cochlear Implant RST
Imagine a world where no one changed anything about themselves, in the fear of changing their identity. No one would have braces and there would be a lot of crooked teeth.
Nobody would get haircuts, and there would be a lot of unmanageable long hair. But if you really think about it, these things could never change who you are, they only enhance what you can become. People get braces so nobody makes them uncomfortable when they 're older about their crooked teeth. It doesn 't change them it just makes their smile brighter. People get haircuts to express who they are, or who they want to be, but it doesn 't change who they actually are, it just makes them look the way they want to. The same thing goes for a cochlear implant. It …show more content…
enhances the possibilities of hearing for a deaf person, but it will never change who they are because they will always be deaf. That 's why deaf people should get cochlear implants because they will not change their identity.
In the movie Sound and Fury a young girl’s parents restrain her from getting a cochlear implant in the fear that it will change her identity in the deaf world. There is also a young boy whose parents are judged and tormented for deciding to implant him with a cochlear implant.
Both families want their children to play a role in the deaf community, but both families are told that with a cochlear implant, that could never happen. The parents of the young girl are introduced to another young girl who was implanted to see if it was really right for their daughter. The young girl was so accustomed to hearing that she didn 't sign and she spoke clearly.
It was clear that the little girl most likely wasn 't aware she was even deaf. This upset the parents and pretty much made their decision for them; they would never implant their child. Ironically six years later the daughter, along with her siblings and her own mother get the implants and say how much their lives have improved. They said it made their daughters life easier and they regretted not doing it when she was younger. And of course the girls role in the deaf community did not change, but she gained a spot in the hearing world as well, which is what a cochlear implant really does.
Now on the other side of that family, a deaf child is born and his parents decide to implant him, but receive a lot of hate from the deaf community. Part of the fact of so much resentment towards the device is that around the time the film "Sound and Fury" was made, the cochlear implants were just being introduced and it really offended the deaf community that someone made something to fix deafness. It made them feel as if people thought of deafness as a disability. They wondered why anyone would want to change themselves from being deaf and being part of such a wonderful community. The mother of the daughter who was the mother of
the deaf child even called her own daughter "a lousy daughter". In reality the mother wasn 't implanting his son because she wanted to rebel against her parents, it was because she knew that although deafness is not a disability it is also not an enhancement to your life. She knew that her boy would have many more opportunities in life if he could hear, and although that sounds like it 's shaming deafness, it isn 't. No matter whether you implant your child or give him a hearing aid, it will never change them, just help them reach their potential …show more content…
easier. In the article
Letting the deaf Be Deaf: Reconsidering the use of cochlear implants in prelingually deaf children it expresses the difference between a hearing parent deciding whether or not to get their child implanted and a deaf parent deciding whether or not to get their child implanted. The choice is easy for a hearing parent because deciding if they want the baby to hear is basically just saying let it be like us.
While a deaf parent is the exact opposite. Deaf parents are the ones that have to make the decision to change their baby’s life, by making them hearing, different than themselves. “T he cochlear implant is intended to help the deaf child ultimately learn an oral language and, in so doing, to facilitate the assimilation of the implantusing child into the mainstream hearing culture” (Crouch). While this statement is correct, the implant doesn’t have to completely destroy deaf culture for the child. The child should still be taught sign language, and be introduced to people in the deaf community. If it is so important for the parents that their child be part of the deaf community, while still being in the hearing world, they will put in the effort.
In the article Sound and Fury; or, Much Ado about Nothing? Cochlear Implants in
Historical Perspective it states “Cochlear implants are only the latest example of medical interventions promising to cure deafness” (Edwards). This statement itself is a brief summary of why the deaf community was so resentful towards the device in the first place. When hearing people say that there is a cure for deafness, it obviously upsets deaf people.
They don’t view themselves as having a disease, and they really don’t have one, but as soon as someone from the hearing world challenges that opinion, all hell breaks loose. The deaf community could have just rejected the idea of the cochlear implants all together, but once people understood it wasn’t a cure, just additional help, they started to accept it. When deaf people heard the word cure, they panicked. They worried there would be no more deaf culture, and that the deaf community would die off. Cure meant change to them, that everything in their lives would change, which is why some people think the implants will change their identity. But that will never happen because no matter what, you will always be deaf. If you get hearing aids, once you take them off you’re no longer capable of hearing. The same thing goes for the implant. The implant itself is not capable of wiping out a culture, it is the responsibility of the parents of the deaf children to keep the culture and the community alive. Which is why deaf people should get cochlear implants because they will not change their
identity.
Works Cited
Sound and Fury
. Dir. Josh Aronson. Prod. Josh Aronson and Roger Weisberg. Artistic
License, 2001. DVD. Crouch, Robert A. "Letting the Deaf Be Deaf: Reconsidering the Use of Cochlear Implants in
Prelingually Deaf Children."
ProQuest
. N.p., JulyAug. 1997. Web. 17 Jan. 2015. Edwards, Rebecca AR. "Sound and Fury; Or, Much Ado about Nothing? Cochlear Implants in
Historical Perspective."
ProQuest
. N.p., Dec. 2005. Web. 17 Jan. 2015.