From: Dario.Broggini@f307.n331.z2.fidonet.org (Dario Broggini)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Cochlear Implants
Date: 6 Nov 92 15:07:48 GMT
Reply-To: Dario.Broggini@f307.n331.z2.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 2:331/307
X-Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference
Originator: wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com

Index Number: 25492

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

About cochlear implants, Sam Calvert wrote:

 at Northeastern University who has done extensive research on
 the subject and is against it.  He is also hearing.

In reply to that, Jack O'Keeffe wrote:

 Sam, if you look you will doubtless find other hearing "researchers"
 and "academics" who feel threatened by anything that will enable deaf
 people to hear.  They think they need a dependent deaf population to
 give them a feeling of control, superiority, and domination.

Sorry, Jack, but what you wrote above is sort of paranoia in my
opinion... how can you really think that those researchers need to
keep the deaf people deaf in order to feel superior? You're joking,
Jack!

I believe that the truth is the contrary indeed: with cochlear
implants, many deaf persons are being used like guinea pigs,
without consideration for their life, health, lack of physical
suffering, and intelligence preservation. The reasoning of those
experimenters sounds like this: "This kid is deaf, so we are
authorized to make what we want inside his/her brain, because being
deaf s/he's otherwise doomed to become mentally retarded anyway".
You know, even many doctors still believe that if a person is
unable to understand what they say, s/he's invariably an idiot.

And I do not believe that those implants can enable the deep deaf
to understand speech, because if so, we could already use that
technology to build a speech recognizer to be put in a pocket,
connected to an LCD screen inside one eyeglasses lens, showing
syllables as they are spoken from the interlocutor(s). And all that
without surgical dangers! I think that when Casper, DragonDictate
or other good continuous speech and/or phoneme recognizers are
ready, that will be the solution, at least for those deaf whose
language is phonetical (like Spanish or Italian). And maybe this
solution is already realizable, but no one thinks of it because no
researcher is deaf and verbal-thinking, so no one of them has still
thought of the benefits this simple phoneme or syllable recognition
could have for the verbal-thinking deaf!

Jack O'Keeffe wrote also:

I have no argument with anyone who chooses not to have
a cochlear implant.

Sorry, Jack... I, instead, think to have some adverse arguments.
First of all, the presumption that no cochlear implant has still
reached the perfection of the biological cochlea, so that they
cannot enable us to hear sounds in the same way and really
understand speech.

But let's see this example now. One of the first cochlear implants
included a piece of metal, part of which was inside and part
outside the cranial bone and skin. If you think of it with a
minimum of good sense, you cannot but be horrified! Neither bone
nor skin can merge into metal. Whenever you wash your hair, you run
the risk of bumping or moving that piece of metal, and sooner or
later a microscopic leak will form and bacteria pass through it.
You run the risk of getting a maybe fatal meningitis! To hear noise
(not to understand speech), you run the risk of becoming an idiot,
or staying paralyzed all your life long! Is it worthwhile? I think
not. So, I think that those adverse researchers simply believe that
the advantages of the cochlear implants are not worth their risks.

Even the ultimate implants are not too convincing to me. You know,
those little pieces of metal that are put completely inside your
head and communicate with an external transceiver through a strong
electromagnetic field. There are studies that suggest that strong
electromagnetic fields are dangerous to life and can lead to
cancer. No one would allow a normal (hearing) child to be exposed
to such fields all its life. So, why should a deaf one be? Are we
perhaps thinking that hearing noise is worth the risk to suffer of
vertigoes all the life, or to get meningitis, leukemia, cancer? And
have you thought that, in case of a car accident, that metal device
would be projected through your brain, possibly causing severe
damages to your life, intelligence and personality?

Thus, as for me, a simple consideration is enough... do you
remember that unlucky fellow whose heart was substituted with an
artificial one? Well, his sad experience proved enough that no
artificial device can fully substitute a living organ... you know,
even a mosquito is more intelligent than a Cray One!

	 \ /
______         _:_
White Cat
/         \

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!2!331!307!Dario.Broggini
Internet: Dario.Broggini@f307.n331.z2.fidonet.org