Deaf to reason

From the Sunday Telegraph:

Paula Garfield and Tomato Lichy, are at the centre of the debate over the new fertility legislation. Both are deaf – as is their daughter Molly, three.

They would like a second child, but because Paula is in her 40s, she may need IVF treatment.

They want the right to choose to have a deaf child and say it is discriminatory to ban deaf parents from doing this. Mr Lichy said:

"Being deaf is not about being disabled. It's about being part of a linguistic minority. We're proud of the language we use and the community we live in."

These people aren't just hard of hearing, they're hard of heart. To wish for your child to be deaf is utterly monstrous. It astounds that one must spell it out but being deaf is a disability: you don't have the ability to hear. Hearing is awesome and it saddens me that my ears are already so shot from pubs, clubs and concerts. That deaf people can get on with life and communicate with others is awesome too but it's not a substitute for working ears. I have no idea what a linguistic minority is but it sounds dangerously cultish if it advocates intentionally disabling children. I could learn to sign if the urge took me, this couple can't learn to hear. They have no idea what they are missing and no idea of the limitations they seek to visit on their child. Perhaps if they did have, they might recognise the evil hidden in their ignorance.

I've often heard people refer to the disabled as differently-abled. I always took it to be a rather soft-headed but harmless way of thinking. Seems I'm going to have to take a stronger stance on that particular brand of idiocy.