Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access published online on May 4, 2005
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, doi:10.1093/deafed/eni030
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1 Northeastern University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. This article is concerned with ethical aspects of the relations between language minorities using signed languages (called the Deaf-World) and the larger societies that engulf them. The article aims to show that such minorities have the properties of ethnic groups, and that an unsuitable construction of the Deaf-World as a disability group has led to programs of the majority that discourage Deaf children from acquiring the language and culture of the Deaf-World and that aim to reduce the number of Deaf births--programs that are unethical from an ethnic group perspective. Four reasons not to construe the Deaf-World as a disability group are advanced: Deaf people themselves do not believe they have a disability; the disability construction brings with it needless medical and surgical risks for the Deaf child; it also endangers the future of the Deaf-World; finally, the disability construction brings bad solutions to real problems because it is predicated on a misunderstanding.
Received November 17, 2004
Revised January 18, 2005
Accepted February 11, 2005
Article
Ethnicity, Ethics, and the Deaf-World
Harlan Lane, E-mail: Lane{at}neu.edu
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