Columnist: ‘Creating a deaf child IS immoral and no parent should be allowed to choose this for their child’
March 11th, 2008
Hilary Freeman, whose brother Jeremy is deaf, writes in the [UK] Daily Mail:
I find the idea of deliberately choosing to have a deaf child so abhorrent.To me, it’s almost tantamount to child abuse. If we were talking about parents who were born without limbs demanding the right to give birth to a child without arms and legs, we would all be repulsed. But is this so different?
The limbless could argue that wheelchairs give them mobility, just as sign language offers a deaf person a means of communication, and they could say that they feel a sense of community with other people who use wheelchairs.
That doesn’t make it right to impose limblessness - or deafness - on a child who has no say in the matter.
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on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 7:43 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, assisted reproduction, deaf/hearing impairment, disabilities.
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March 12th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Ms. Freeman’s take on this legislation amazes me. Doesn’t she realize it could mean her loved ones’ existence - their very lives - could be legislated away? She professes to love her brother Jeremy, his wife Ravit, and their children Chantelle and Eytan, but details for us their challenges as well as their preference to have their hearing. That’s all well and good, but this legislation would not give these people their hearing nor would it “fix” the gene that causes deafness. But it may result in the non-existence of deaf people. As the descendant of deaf individuals without whom I would not exist, I find it repulsive that the deaf — or any other people with disabilities for that matter — would have their existence legislated away.