Implications

Cochlear implants are sometimes seen as an attempt to eradicate deafness altogether.  When they were first introduced, there was talk that deafness could now be eradicated.  However, the medical professional has since retreated from that view, and now insist that an implanted person will always be "hearing impaired", but will have the benefit of some hearing.

There are massive cultural implications of the cochlear implant, as they are seen as a great threat by many members of the deaf community, as you will see in your own research work on this topic, and we will discuss this more in the next session.

If you are interested in other ways of using technology to eradicate deafness, you might like to read pages 379 to 386 in Lane, Hoffmeister and Bahan.  Here, they describe the use of genetic engineering and eugenics to ensure that no one needs to "cure" deafness, because no-one will be born deaf.

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This page was last modified January 16, 2000
jim.kyle@bris.ac.uk