ENGL 1711 03

Mathew Oleson

A cochlear implant is a device used by a deaf individual to help them hear. This is not the same as a hearing aid. A hearing aid works to amplify noise, but the person needs to be able to hear on some level. A cochlear implant works best when a person is “profoundly deaf”, and has very little to no hearing ability. Hearing aids work to amplify noise, while the implant works to bypass the inner ear and send sound straight to the brain.

This is a process that is very revolutionary, but comes at a price. This price has multiple levels, and has been debated back and forth throughout the world. Doctors would claim this as a cure for deafness, but a person in the deaf community wouldn’t consider deafness as something that needs to be fixed. This is one of the major debates that are included in the controversy of cochlear implants. A cochlear implant can have many lasting detrimental effects for a deaf person.

The biggest piece of this controversy is the way that a person is treated in the deaf community when they have undergone this procedure. The deaf community is a vast group of deaf people that interact with one another primarily through sign language. Most often people that get cochlear implants do not learn sign, or at least it does not become their first language. Many of these procedures were decided by parents that do not know sign, and wanted to make sure their child would still be able to learn proper language skills.

Doctors will say the earlier the better, when it comes to getting the implant. Deaf people say that because of this, the procedure is done against the person’s will. They were too young to decide on their own. 96% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, who did not need to learn sign language. This makes them want the implant, that way the child will still be able to learn proper linguistic skills at an early age. This thought process is what the deaf world looks down on. The deaf community is not something you stumble upon walking down the street. Deaf people introduce the deaf world to other deaf people. A hearing caregiver would not necessarily provide the child the same opportunities that a whole family of deaf people would have.

If the child was born to deaf parents, they would not join the deaf community unless brought to it by a third party that is deaf. If a child has a cochlear implant they will also most likely be learning the common spoken language over the common sign language, pushing them even further away from the deaf community. The deaf community looks down on the implant because it is believed to prevent a person from the rich culture of being deaf. It is used to “fix” the “disability” of deafness, rather than embrace the difference of being deaf.

We live in a hearing world, but that doesn’t mean every person here can hear. This does not show they are handicapped, less than, or any other label besides different. Every person is different from another, but I do not believe I am disabled because my reading ability may be worse than someone reading this essay. That is how Deaf people look at being born deaf.

People that become deaf later in life will probably want an implant more than someone born deaf, but it would be that person’s decision all on their own. A person that grew up hearing and lost their hearing from illness, trauma, or age deterioration already has a baseline knowledge of the spoken language and sounds. This is something they would want to get back to, and therefore wouldn’t be affected by the Deaf Community because they were never a part of it to begin with.

The price of the culture controversy is not the only barrier against these implants. The “American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery” rates the total cost of this implant up to $100,000. This includes evaluation, surgery, the device, and rehabilitation. Some of which may be covered by insurance, but not guaranteed. This, also, does not include transportation, time off of work for the preoperative and postoperative surgeries, and mapping appointments. (Boudreault & Gertz, 2016) Upkeep may include replacements, upgrades, and updates of parts or the whole device. If lost or broken, this would also add to cost. A typical implant has a shelf life of five to ten years. Someone getting this before turning two will most likely undergo this same surgery roughly eight times during their life.

The price for getting this surgery is not always monetary. In the 90’s the incision area left a very large “C” shaped scar behind the patient’s ear. Now, with advancements in the medical field, these scars are much smaller. Stanford Health Care says “that one long-term risk of a cochlear implant is meningitis (infection of the fluid around the brain). This is very rare and there have only been 91 cases out of 60,000 patients with cochlear implants. However, 17 of these patients have died. Because of this, certain vaccinations are now necessary prior to surgery, especially spinal meningitis” (Stanford 2020). Many in the Deaf community feel that these negative consequences are not worth putting people through for this end result. In ‘93 the NAD put out a statement discouraging the implant. With the growing number of children receiving implantation, they changed their publication. Now they are advocating for sign language, over discouraging the implant.

There may some good things that come out of cochlear implants, life changing, positive things; but they are not worth it. A person with one of the implants has trouble finding a place in the Deaf Community. The implants are very costly and can have terrible negative effects. Being deaf is not a hindrance. Being deaf is being empowered to learn different than the rest. Embrace the difficulties and rise to the challenge to live differently than the people around you, while being proud of who you are. Be deaf, not a patient.