alt Hacker News "These kind of genetic therapies seem to reinforce this idea of deafness being a problem in need of eradication, and that the only solution for disabled people to fully assimilate into society is through a medical intervention," says Jaipreet Virdi
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ceejayoz • today at 2:34 PM
To some in the Deaf community, being Deaf is like skin color or hair color or height or left handedness; a normal variation of humanity with its own culture. "Fixing" reads as genocide to them, and it's not entirely unwarranted.
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notahackeratll • today at 2:44 PM
Consider this from the perspective of a deaf person. While it seems silly from the perspective of a hearing person, a lot of people in the deaf community are concerned that they are viewed as having a problem needing to be fixed, rather than competent, highly functioning people.
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Noaidi • today at 4:02 PM
It’s not, and if you don’t understand this, you’ve never been around the deaf community before. My college language agreement was filled through sign language. Learning about the deaf community was fascinating.
In 200 years we'll be having the same debate about whether missing the gene for the Human-Machine Interface Organ is a problem in need of eradication.