March 17th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
ABC News reports that the United Kingdom is taking up legislation that would make it illegal for IVF couples to choose which child among their embryos will be carried to term, depending on the results of the embryos’ genetic screening.
Discussion of the ban has brought up an interesting fact: deaf parents have been deliberately selecting potentially deaf children. I could possibly imagine how deaf parents may feel inadequate if they have a child who is hearing. This wouldn’t be the first time, though, where a child has different capabilities than his or her parents.
A deaf subculture does neither deaf or hearing people any favors in the long run. Any subclass or minority is a ripe target for government officials to promise favors in exchange for votes. Withdrawal from the community at large ironically reduces the community’s need to be aware and makes discrimination worse. We need each other.
Whether or not there is an entire deaf subculture that chooses to operate unto itself, choosing an embryo and leaving the rest in the freezer permanently as mere property is abandonment, perhaps reckless endangerment.
I’m not sure how this law can be enforced. As soon as there is a screening, parents have a choice in their laps. If more embryos are produced than are implanted, and they are all screened, does the doctor use a board-game spinner to determine which embryos get implanted first?
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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March 17th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I’m going to take a stab at a comment here because I’ve had a lot of interaction with those in the Deaf Community, and have, for the most part, been accepted into their culture because of my willingness to not only learn their language, but to study to be an interpreter to work with them.
You said that Deaf parents might feel inadequate if they have a child who is hearing rather than Deaf. This is not the case. Having a hearing child is, in many ways, no different than having a child with different needs. The child can and is still accepted into the Deaf Community, and is known as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). However, a Deaf child is more like his or her parents, and has a bond that makes his or her relationship with the parents just that much closer because of their ability to relate.
And those in the Deaf Community don’t “withdraw” from the rest of society just because they have their own subculture, rather they interact with both, feeling more a part of the Deaf Community because of their ability to relate to one another. They are very tight-knit, in most cases.
I think that a bill of this magnitude wouldn’t be so controversial if it weren’t for the fact that many parents who are hearing might choose to exclude a potentially deaf child, as they would any other with perceived disabilities. Thank God that these scientific breakthroughs haven’t always been available. Otherwise, our world would be filled with a lot fewer people who help make this world a much better place… like me.