Letters 21/04/01
Call a spade a spade So my quadriplegia, like deafness, must not be considered an inferior state, merely a different cultural choice (Sunday Forum, 14/4)? It is "politically incorrect" to call me disabled because this would undermine my self-esteem? What nonsense. I am different, yes - and so is Ian Thorpe. But my difference is a disability, while his is a super-ability. My difference doesn't necessarily make me morally inferior, but it does make me inferior in my ability to live on earth. His difference doesn't necessarily make him morally superior, but it does make him superior in his ability to live a longer more enjoyable life. Yes Damian Lacey, it is "OK to be disabled only if you have exhausted all options in search of a cure". And thank you, Bettina Arndt, for braving the PC police and stating common sense. Self-respecting people with disabilities do not gain from politically correct attempts to distort reality; our self-esteem is not to be faked by such childish nonsense. Give us a break: call spades spades, quadriplegia and deafness
disabilities - and people who would purposely design their children to be
born with disabilities monsters. Playing God People can argue about whether or not deafness is a disability from
here to eternity, but the point is that this couple have imposed their
belief on another human being's life. Was the child given a say? Parents
may think they know what is best for their children - but parents are not
God. Hooray, I can hear! I am a 15-year-old girl born profoundly deaf. I wore hearing aids from 12 months of age and, four years ago, when my hearing aids were no longer helping me, I received a cochlear implant. This was the best decision my parents and I have ever made. Thanks to this amazing technology, I can now talk to my friends on the phone, listen to music and l've even heard frogs croaking, birds singing and the waves crash on the rocks. These are the things that hearing people take for granted. I wish I wasn't deaf, but the cochlear implant has changed my life
radically - and I can't imagine going back to a silent world again. The jazz test Tony Gould writes about the "special abilities" deaf people develop to "hear" music. To this I have just one word: jazz. Armstrong, Ellington, Coltrane, Getz, and many, many more names. I feel sorry for anyone who cannot sense the history of so many deeply
personal voices, expressed more through the aural nuances and inflections
of an instrument than by any comprehension of mere notes and rhythms.
Brave New World? Your articles on the deaf couple who want a deaf child were informative
and moving. But they raise a disturbing question: what is the difference
between this couple's desire to conceive a deaf child (rather than adopt
one) and Adolf Hitler's desire to build a super race? Are we slipping into
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World?
|