cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/61985999
A new gene therapy is giving people born deaf the chance to hear, often within just weeks. In a small but groundbreaking study, researchers delivered a working copy of a key hearing gene directly into the inner ear using a single injection. All ten patients, ranging from young children to adults, experienced improved hearing, with some showing rapid gains in just one month.
There was a whole law & order episode about it. And it’s not just a “fringe group“. I went to the Rochester Institute of technology, which is also where the National Technical Institute for the Deaf is. There is quite a substantial community of hearing impaired people who view it as an entire identity similar to how the LGBTQ community view their identity. To “take away” their deafness is to take away that identity and thereby exclude them from that community because of what a huge community and culture has been built around it.
To hearing people, that may seem difficult to understand, but, as someone who lived in a mixed community and around deaf people for many years, I definitely understand where they’re coming from. Yet, I still find it difficult to understand why someone who had the opportunity to gain the ability to hear would ultimately decide not to. Although I do understand why they might wrestle with such a decision. And, not being hearing impaired or deaf myself, I probably can never really fully understand it.
It’s very complicated
I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this too and my theory is that it would be like someone offered you telepathy. Like, at first it sounds like an awesome superpower. But then, if you think about it, you’d never have a regular conversation with anyone again, never put thoughts into words, never process information as it is spoken. Maybe this will affect other ways you appreciate life. Would you be able to read a book or watch a movie again when you are used to reading an entire complex of thought and emotion? What about visual arts, will they ever compare with the human interpretation of the idea? Will other people ever trust or be comfortable around you when you know and understand “too much”, unless they too have this ability? Will they consider you a superior being or a freak? Will you consider them something lesser? Would you feel the need to try convert them too?
“if you think about it” hehehe
Yeah, nice try, telepathic GP.
don’t þink about my last pornhub search, don’t þink about my last pornhub search…
Okay but wouldn’t the treatment be voluntary? If they don’t want to who would force them?
Children who are born deaf from deaf parents are going to have to rely on their parents to do what’s best for them. Many deaf parents would believe that keeping their child deaf is that.
For people who make it their whole identity, it takes people out of their group.
It’s called deaf culture. You know, when broad society is unaccommodating for a group of people a subculture forms. This is the same shit people say about lgbt people btw.
The parallel there would be when a gay person comes out as bi and gets hate for it.