I'm sure that many of you have heard of Cochlear Implants in the news or even in an science newspaper, and how they usually trout it about as a "Miracle cure" for Deafness.
Few of you might even had read the occasional online comment by a deaf person who said that they were totally opposed to this, and were utterly baffled by their post. "Why wouldn't a deaf person want to become hearing??" many of you might had thought at one point when reading those kind of comments. "Okay, so they grew up being deaf and being perfectly happy the way they were. But why wouldn't they want this for their children?? to help them fit in?"
That's where I come in and try to explain both sides of the debate in a impartial way as I can.
We'll discuss this first from the viewpoint of a deaf person, and then talk about how Cochlear Implants can be both helpful or a negative influence.
From a deaf person's viewpoint, It's not so much that we are truly against Cochlear Implants as we are against people seeing us as something that needs to be fixed.
Public coverage about Cochlear Implants tends to gloss over reality in exchange for a feel-good fluff piece. The way public newspapers and news channels would have you believe it, Cochlear Implants are a magical panacea that instantly fixes all of a person's problems!
On top of it, Cochlear implants are a very profitable business regardless of who pays for it... each piece can cost up to 50k-100k depending on the brand and quality. So there are many who are leery that those companies are just paying the newspapers and the like to always spin a very positive story with none of the possible downsides.
They don't tell the public about the years of training, adjustments, etc to make sure that the Cochlear implants work correctly. Depending on the age of the deaf person, it can take years before the deaf can interact with others like a "hearing person".
Here's a fact sheet about Cochlear implants... it lists both positives and negatives of having a Cochlear implant. So clearly, it's not a a panacea.... rather it's more of a tool that you use according to your needs. Sometimes it's a very great tool for people to use. Other times it can be a very ineffective tool, depending on the person and how she/he wants to use it.
So most deaf people would see this as no big deal.... if it wasn't for the fact that people who have Audism as a part of their core beliefs feel that they have to force Cohlear Implants on Deaf people regardless of whenever they want it or not.
We have doctors telling new parents who just gave birth to a deaf baby that their baby is doomed--that she will never have a job, lead a normal life, etc. Despite the fact that 95% of deaf people often prove those doctors wrong on a regular basis everyday.
Then we have the more naive and ignorant people who brought into the idea that "CI"s were magical panacea. Those people literally come up to deaf people who they don't know that well, and tell them that we should get Cochlear Implants. Just because it would totally fix everything that was wrong with us! (rolls eyes)
And yes, this can often occur on a regular basis.
To us, that would be like some stranger assuming that something is wrong with you, and then walking up to you just so that he could tell you that there's a cure for that now. Kind of like assuming that some sunburnt person had Eczema and very unhelpfully telling the person that there is a cure for Eczema.
You don't know that deaf person, so why would you assume that person had problems? What if that person was actually a fully functioning member of society despite all your assumptions about him/her? So you see, it's very rude to assume that the person leads such a poor and pitiful life.
You see, maybe there are many reasons why a deaf person can't get CIs.
For example, medical reasons... maybe she needs to take pills everyday that would greatly conflict with things like anesthesia. Which one definitely needs when going under heavy surgery.
For most people, the risk of general anesthesia is very low. However, for some people with certain medical conditions, it is more risky.
Many Audiologists will tell you that they believe that while CIs are a very excellent tool for helping people hear, they are not for everyone. They usually wouldn't recommend it for a person who were merely hard of hearing, for instance. That person could still greatly enjoy things like music with help from headphones, etc.
Or even a deaf person who can hear voices, pick out music notes with hearing aids alone. They usually will recommend CIs for the profoundly deaf, though.
They also have to deal with the unrealistic dreams of people who want to go though with it. An Audiologist has to ground people back to reality by telling them that just like with everything else, there are always ups and downs with CIs. So they should be prepared to take the bad along with the good.
Yet despite all this, there are still too many people who keeps on telling us: "Come on, get CIs already!" That we can't help but get tired of it all.
The more people try to force it on us, the more we want to dig in our heels and flip them off.
(shakes head) It's no wonder why so many deaf people have a strong aversion to CIs when people are not willing to respect our personal choices. Or worse, think that every single one of us have to be miserable, sad, etc just because we're deaf.
To us, this is just like being born with blue eyes or a birthmark. It doesn't stop us from living life, and is just a part of us. Why would this make us sad or cause us to have a hard life?
Yes, there are people who have discovered that there was a huge improvement over hearing aids and had zero problems with their CIs. They were able to interact better with hearing people without having to resort to lip-reading or even writing on paper.
I'm very happy for those people, since they're using a tool they wanted and were ready for. They made a personal informed choice for themselves, and I feel that we need to respect them for that.
Besides, I feel that a person is still deaf even with CIs....even if they grew up as a "hearing person" outside of deaf culture. For that CI was nothing but a machine to help them hear... without it, they are deaf. So personally I wouldn't consider it a betrayal that a deaf person my age did this because the Deaf Culture would still be a part of them... well, as long as an Audist did not force the deaf person into it.
CIs cannot fully replicate normal human hearing... but it can come pretty damn close. So I can see why hearing parents of deaf children would be tempted to do it... espeically since they want to be able to effectively communicate with their children without having to learn a second language. Sometimes people have a hard time learning new things at certain ages.... it's a well-known fact that older people have a hard time learning new things, whereas it's easier for young kids to learn.
It's human nature to want to not have to step out of their comfort zone, and just kind of take a "shortcut" instead of the road that they see as the "long way around".
However, I would hope that those parents are also realistic about the whole thing, depending on the age of their child when they got the CI.
You see, getting a CI is pretty life-changing and it can have both negative and positive effects on a child. It sometimes means that the child has to change schools and leave behind all her/his friends....which the child may not want. amongst other things that might come up as an result of getting CIs.
And on top of it, no two CIs can have the same result. It widely ranges from person to person. Some didn't notice any difference between a normal hearing aid and a CI.
Some saw an vast improvement over the hearing aids.
A few actually became worse off.
Why so much disparity between people, you ask. I would say it's because of the surgeons that they pick.
Surgeons are just like everyone else... some suck royally at their job, while others are such a old pro at their job that they could do it with their eyes closed.
I think both Deaf people and CI-users would recommend that you make a informed choice not only on CI brands, etc... but on the surgeons themselves. Instead of blindly trusting other people to do what is best for you.
I had an friend who were just like me... deaf, with some residual hearing. Like me, She was able to enjoy music with help from hearing aids. For years her hearing family had been pressuring her to get Cochlear implants, telling her things such as that she would be able to enjoy music much better since Cochlear implants were basically a vastly improved version of hearing aids.
So she finally caved, and with her insurance was able to buy CIs. But her insurance for some reason did not cover the hospital bills. So she couldn't get the best surgeon like she wanted, and had to settle for a surgeon whose credentials were not as good.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. The CI implant was a failure, because the surgeon was completely unfamiliar with this kind of surgery. To make things even worse, she had lost all natural hearing ability that she had left, and were no longer able to enjoy music with normal hearing aids. So she tried again to get an CI to get that ability back. It was then she received bad news-- that surgeon had left behind such a mess that she couldn't get another CI. Basically, she had lost her ability to enjoy music over this fiasco.
Her story isn't one that happens very often... in fact it's said to be very rare that this sort of thing happens. But it does serve as a reminder to always pick a surgeon who does know what he's doing, as opposed to one who was new to this kind of thing.
Getting Cochlear Implants should always be a personal, informed choice choice that you make by yourself. Others should never pressure you into it, espeically if you're not ready for it or if you didn't really want it to start with.
CIs can be wonderful tools for people to use. Just keep in mind that they are not for everyone, and we can get all along just fine.