From: Brian Phillips (deepbluehalo@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Apr 30 2002 - 07:54:54 MDT
"Olga Bourlin" <fauxever@sprynet.com> shared
<<All this talk about enhanding unborn children made me think of something I
read recently ... I mean, you will not believe it (depressing, IMO):
Deaf by Design:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/displ
ay?slug=deaf21&date=20020421&query=deaf>>
After reading this article I was struck by several thoughts.
I knew that some Deaf parents had opted not to have cochlear implants used,
this struck me as a psychologically fascinating decison on their part. Very
tribal, very very profound.
Adding genetic couseling into the mix as this lesbian couple did, this
really
does remind you we are living in the future, it's just not evenly
distributed.
This sort of pretermined (and hoped for) "difference" from normal baseline
humanity is in an entirely different volitional classification than a
"simple
subculture, now or orignially defined by the caprice of disability". It
would,
if it became very widespread, presage the emergence of a new strain or
variant of the species.
I'm inclined to think this is rather cool (unlike many on the list I tend
to see
ethics as a delusion of priests, YMMV :).
Question being, absent a singleton-deity-hard-take-off scenario,
What will the Deaf community do when it's possible to hardwire away, from
in vitro conception, the basis for their culture? I would not this
technology is
also, virtually by definition, the ability to "hardwire in" the basis for
their culture.
Especially if one could unify the "disability" of no hearing, with genetic
improvements in other areas, so the Deaf community could "spin" their
decison as a much less.. abusive decison on the parts of parents.
What sort of "fleshers" might this sort of behaviour engender given
favorable circumstances and sufficent time?
Alas we will likely never know, but it's a tantalizing, if rather morbid,
prospect.
brian
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