Wonderful science, always hard at work, trying to create a superior race! But here we find a couple who are fighting for the right to have a deaf child.
It is a cornerstone of modern society and law that deaf and hearing people have equal rights. If hearing people were to have the right to throw away a deaf embryo, then we as deaf people should also have the right to throw away a hearing embryo.
I find, as people, we’re awfully good at validating arguments when it’s all too convenient for our case. How many time has one said, on abortion, “Who knows if that aborted baby could have found a cure for cancer or AIDS,” only to hear back, “or it could have been the next Hitler.”
It’s true; to an extent, the point is moot. But the couple pulls at our heart strings, saying:
Some will be artists, some will be accountants, some may go to Oxbridge, following the path that several of my deaf friends have already beaten. If they had been conceived via IVF, and detected as deaf at that stage, then all would have been aborted before birth.
Suddenly this is only true for deaf embryos? A moment ago, they were requesting the right to discard hearing embryos.
I’m well aware that this is a case of discrimination but, in the end, every discarded embryo and every aborted fetus deserves such passionate advocacy. If they all can be recognized to have innate rights, it stands to reason that the deaf will not be left out.
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