A Deaf Mans View
A television show called True Life that airs on MTV, did an episode a few years back on a deaf teenager undergoing surgery for a cochlear implant. According to the deaf community the show did not do an accurate job representing the surgery. The young man in the video clarifies the misconceptions after watching the show himself. Although the video is all in American Sign Language, you can click on the link and read the text that he typed into the description. Its important that when discussing the disadvantages of a cochlear implant, we go directly to those who are affected by them for our source of information.
Disadvantages of Cochlear Implants
("Silent news," 1993)
Many deaf individuals do not feel as if cochlear implants have been beneficial. The creation of deaf culture had made deaf people become viewed as a minority group, not as a group of people that need to be fixed (Lane, 1993). With the invention of an implant, deaf members feel as if society is trying to “fix” them instead of understand them.
Cochlear implants have also proven to be unsuccessful in many cases. Most benefits aren’t that great since you can’t hear fully, therefore children still never grow up learning how to speak totally correctly (Hyde & Power, 2005). Deaf children with implants instead, grow up not belonging to either a hearing community or a deaf one, which leads them to isolation. Many people, both hearing and deaf, view this as a major drawback of the procedure (Lane, 1993).
Children are not old enough to give informed consent; therefore, parents are responsible for giving doctors permission to do the surgery. People have also complained that it isn’t fair that parents can choose if their children get the implant or not. Since the cochlear implant is not actually prolonging life, there should be no reason why a parent gets to decide if there child has such an invasive procedure (Hyde & Power, 2005).
The adults that have agreed to get a cochlear implant are also beginning to see a form of rejection. Most deaf adults have been deaf for so long they have created strong ties within the deaf community. Many adults who have been deaf most of their life no longer interact with hearing society ever often (Lane, 1993). After the procedure, this is often switched. The now hearing deaf adults are able to communicate within these societies, hearing and deaf. Some of these people even begin to prefer hearing society since they have longed to be a part of this community for so long. Deaf communities view these people as heafies. “A heafie is someone who grew up culturally deaf who now appears to reject Deaf culture and act like a hearing person” (Kannapell, 1994). This has caused trouble amongst the groups of people who choose to get a cochlear implant. Deaf individuals are faced with choosing their loyalty to the deaf community or fulfilling a dream of hearing. It is a tough decision for anyone to have to make.
Cochlear implants have also proven to be unsuccessful in many cases. Most benefits aren’t that great since you can’t hear fully, therefore children still never grow up learning how to speak totally correctly (Hyde & Power, 2005). Deaf children with implants instead, grow up not belonging to either a hearing community or a deaf one, which leads them to isolation. Many people, both hearing and deaf, view this as a major drawback of the procedure (Lane, 1993).
Children are not old enough to give informed consent; therefore, parents are responsible for giving doctors permission to do the surgery. People have also complained that it isn’t fair that parents can choose if their children get the implant or not. Since the cochlear implant is not actually prolonging life, there should be no reason why a parent gets to decide if there child has such an invasive procedure (Hyde & Power, 2005).
The adults that have agreed to get a cochlear implant are also beginning to see a form of rejection. Most deaf adults have been deaf for so long they have created strong ties within the deaf community. Many adults who have been deaf most of their life no longer interact with hearing society ever often (Lane, 1993). After the procedure, this is often switched. The now hearing deaf adults are able to communicate within these societies, hearing and deaf. Some of these people even begin to prefer hearing society since they have longed to be a part of this community for so long. Deaf communities view these people as heafies. “A heafie is someone who grew up culturally deaf who now appears to reject Deaf culture and act like a hearing person” (Kannapell, 1994). This has caused trouble amongst the groups of people who choose to get a cochlear implant. Deaf individuals are faced with choosing their loyalty to the deaf community or fulfilling a dream of hearing. It is a tough decision for anyone to have to make.