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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on April 27, 2005
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2005 10(3):311-315; doi:10.1093/deafed/eni031
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Ethics and Deafness

Designing Deaf Babies and the Question of Disability

H-Dirksen L. Bauman

Gallaudet University

This article explores the recent controversy surrounding a Deaf lesbian couple's deliberate attempt at finding a Deaf donor to increase their chances of having a d/Deaf baby. Many have criticized the Deaf couple for harming their child; Deaf advocates have responded that the couple's decision reflects a natural cultural desire. This article seeks to explore how the medical model of disability implicitly used on both sides of the debate has obscured important points. Once this controversy takes into consideration the social construction of disability, the ethical defense of seeking a deaf child gains further support. This leads to the ironic claim that seeking a deaf child could actually mitigate the conditions of disability within the family.

1. It is more complicated than that, for this model presupposes that there are autonomous worlds, and that the ideologies of the hearing world do not influence the very structures and objects of thought that circulate in the so-called autonomous Deaf-World. But for the purposes of this discussion, we use these terms and concepts.

2. I wish to thank Joseph Murray, for introducing the concept of the contact zone as a means of explaining deaf experiences. This appears in his forthcoming chapter, "Transnationality and Co-Equality: Understanding Deaf Lives," in H-D. Bauman, H-Dirksen (Ed.), Sightings: Explorations in deaf studies, University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming.

All correspondence should be sent to H-Dirksen L. Bauman, Department of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies, Gallaudet University, 800 Florida Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002 (e-mail: h-dirksen.bauman{at}gallaudet.edu).

Received September 20, 2004; revised December 15, 2004; accepted January 5, 2005


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