Urgent decisions

The latest documentary in the People First series clearly showed the agony of decision facing the parents of children born deaf in deciding whether or not they should subject them to major cochlear implant surgery in an attempt to “cure” their deafness. The deaf community are right in thinking that cochlear implants threaten them but wrong to suppose that surgeons are wholly responsible for this threat. Ninety per cent of children who are born deaf belong to parents with intact hearing, and it is the parents who decide whether surgery can help them hear. Deaf parents would make similar judgments …