Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement

 
 
Saturday, 19th July 2008

Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the The Scotsman site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

Sign In
Register

Is allowing a child to be born deaf a criminal act?



Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 06 May 2008
By Sheila McLean
IN MARCH 2008, Tomato Lichy and his partner, who are both deaf, made public the fact that they want to have a second child. Their first child is deaf, and they want to have a second deaf child.
This desire is not without parallel, although it might be anticipated as being relatively rare. In the US some years ago, a deaf couple – Sharon Duchesneau and Candy McCullough – obtained sperm from a friend who was congenitally deaf and delibera...



The full article contains 682 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

 
1

Charles Linskaill,

Edinburgh 06/05/2008 01:39:15

The biggest problem here is the natural human instinct to reproduce!

'NO-ONE' goes for IVF treatment lightheartedly, it is a long process, with many,..'upsets'! and demands allot from all concerned!

"Is allowing a child to be born deaf a criminal act?"

In 'My Books',..'NO'!

My DYW, (darling young wife) and I are undergoing IVF,,she said to me, 'only the other day',..

"If She or He is a 'Downs Syndrome' Baby or 'Special Needs'"

"I will still love them, because this is the child I brought into the World, and they WILL get the extra Special Care and Attention, that any Mother Would give their Child"!

Who can argue with that!, It is a Woman's Right to have a Child!

Is this not the reason we are all here in the fist place,?

Deny that, and we are all on the road to,..'nowhere'!

'Hitler' wanted to produce a..'Super Race'!

Are you telling me, we want to do the same,??

Think about It!!
2

Charles Linskaill,

Edinburgh 06/05/2008 01:52:00

re: *correction*!...

"I will still love them, because this is the child I brought into the World"


"I will still love them, because this is the child I,..

*'Pinned for and Wanted'* and brought into the World"
3

Azooz,

Iraqi In Malaysia 06/05/2008 03:05:49
WHY would we accept a legitimate marriage, if we are going to stop anyone from having children? God tell you to have children, god didn’t say YOU MUST HAVE A PERFECT CHILD, nobody is perfect, we don’t have problems with deaf people infect, a deaf person would be lucky! Because they don’t have to hear the lies of politicians now of today!

I would say if you are officially married, u can have children as much as you want providing you can support them and guide them to a stable life!
4

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 06/05/2008 10:51:06
I was born three-quarters deaf. That wasn't planned, although my father and all my paternal uncles suffered from the same disability. It was never tested at school, and indeed only came to light definitively at university during experimental psychology tests using electroencephalography.

I agree that there is a positive side to being deaf, especially the development of more acute sensitivities in the other organs of perception, leading to generally heightened analytical ability through being forced to work things out for oneself with less external influence. On the negative side, deafness can be a severe educational and social hindrance, especially so long as it remains undiagnosed. I have experienced judgments ranging from mental deficiency to homosexuality (difficulty in communicating with women due to their high-pitched voices). Intuitive lip-reading, with a loss of eye-contact, can also lead to some weird interpretations ("suffers from feelings of guilt").

Why any parents would actually want their children to be born without one of the most basic means of interacting with the outside world is almost beyond comprehension, but I assume it has something to do with a need for self-justification. I feel no such need, and I am thankful that my only surviving child has normal hearing. While I would rather be deaf than blind, if I were forced to choose, and while I can understand the dilemma of parents who are faced with the probability of transmitting a genetic deficiency of any sort, I would still argue that, as in the case of consanguinity, there is a case for restriction of the right to reproduce in certain instances where there are overriding societal considerations or the future welfare of the offspring would be problematical.


5

CS,

06/05/2008 11:14:12
If I deliberately robbed an individual of any of their senses, regardless of my motivation to do so, I would be guilty of a criminal act, full stop. To deliberately make sure your own child will be born with a considerable disability, regardless of the motivation behind it should be therefore be considered a criminal act just as much as any individual would be for deliberately rendering another deaf, sightless, tasteless or otherwise.
6

celtic4,

USA 20/05/2008 00:34:35
While married people are not hindered from having children, deliberately choosing to have a child without hearing should not be tolerated. This is severely hampering a human life. Plus the fact that my parents kept a child once, for a time, that was said to be unadoptable due to mental deficiancy. Turns out the little guy was just deaf! He was then given special training and not found to be mentally deficiant at all. But my point is that a child can be easily misdiagnosed, put down, subjected to all sorts of inhumanities, and why would anyone choose that for a child? Any child? I can't understand this way of thought.

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.