Does New Law Mean Good News for New Parents of Deaf Children?
Sunday November 9, 2008
On October 8, 2008, Bush signed into law the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act. What this act does, among other things, is that it entitles parents to more support and information about Down Syndrome and other genetic conditions before and after birth. New parents will get current information on the condition.
This applies to both prenatally and postnatally diagnosed conditions. A prenatal condition is one that is identified by prenatal genetic testing or prenatal screening. A postnatal condition is one diagnosed by postnatal genetic testing or screening within the first year of life.
What, if anything, does this new law, Public Law No: 110-374 mean for newly diagnosed deaf babies and their parents? Will it mean an end to doctors saying "I'm sorry," to parents of newly diagnosed deaf children in the hospital? Does it mean better access for parents to information on the spectrum of educational and communication options for deaf children, without bias?
Comments
Click here:
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4024
When the time is right for what bio centric groups called… the “designer baby”. The deaf parent still have that right to inform the bio gene engineer to make the baby deaf. (for hearing people to understand this… not because of disabled, but for linguistic purpose).
I don’t understand the comment made by Ecnarb. Could someone explain to me what this poster meant. It sounds like they are talking about making a baby deaf????
In where I live there is a law that the hospital is responsible of evaluating newborn babies for hearing degree.
The comment that Ecnarb made is not completely related to the law. The law is about making test to determine if the baby has a pre-natal condition. The comment of Ecnarb is about baby engineering (as the article he linked says), letting couples chose to have genetically engineered deaf babies (in-vitro babies). I’m guessing that Ecnarb is a person that advocates for infertile deaf persons to have deaf in-vitro babies, when most in-vitro babies are engineered to not have genetically acquired conditions (I don’t say disease because some conditions aren’t diseases, as hearing loss). According to the article, doctors are refusing to provide the means to have a baby that will be deaf.