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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (54794)	8/18/2002 10:56:53 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

One of my brothers has cerebral palsy. He has never walked, or even really stood up, and his muscles are spastic, which limits the use of his hands. He cannot take a bath or use a commode without the use of a machine to move him. Now, he has a strong electric wheelchair, and gets around Washington a lot; uses the computer to maintain a wide circle of acquaintances; and has even managed to have a few girl friends in his time. Nevertheless, it would be grotesque to romanticize his disability, and he would gladly rise and walk if he could. All of the platitudes about the resiliency of the human spirit or the human ability to adapt to circumstances do not compensate for the fact that he is woefully circumscribed in his options and subject to endless indignities. Fortunately, the human spirit is resilient, and has a pretty good life. Still, that does not make his situation good, nor mean that he does not wish he could be healed......

To: epicure who wrote (54794)	8/18/2002 1:48:09 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

But no good parent would choose to let their child be a dinosaur. It would seem that the choice is between being a dinosaur and making your child a dinosaur so you won't be. I agree with you that deaf culture will disappear sooner rather than later. You and I and others have had conversations about parenting, usually in the context of abortion, where I have expressed by horror over people's rationale or lack of rationale for producing children. There are plenty of people in the world, poor, desperate people, who produce large families so they can be assured of having someone to care for them in their old age. This situation with the cochlear implant seems much the same to me. You keep your kids deaf so you won't be alone in a strange world. I'm not condoning it, only pointing out that it isn't so unusual or surprising, no more horrible than having babies in places where there is no safe water to drink.