Much of biological science and technologies are trying to cure disease. However, there are a large group of people who do not want to be cured. There are several instances and examples where they have objected vehemently about not doing things that would cure their ailment.
What ailment ?
Deafness.
Deafness has been cured to a large extent with cochlear transplant that translates the sound to the cochlear nerve signals. However, the community of deaf people is so strong that they actually have felt one with their disease, their secret sign language and the strong community and do NOT want to be cured of the disease.
Recently, a video of a child listening to his father has become very popular and shows the great effect technology has on all of us.
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There have been cases where the deaf couple has resisted their children getting a cochlear transplant, they have looked for sperm that can guarantee them deaf children to match them. There is something more to this… deaf people have their sign language name, their community and a secret language and getting a cochlear transplant makes them like everyone else with the added problem of possible infections, not perfect pitch and sound sensation.
It almost makes people think that this does solve their hearing problem but loses them from the community.
As we biologists and technologists move forward to cure disease and deafness being an example, we have to remember that people like communities and keeping them as part of community is probably as important as curing disease.
