It is amazing what will turn up sometimes via Google. Things like this legal document dated March 23, 2010 about a child custody case involving a deaf child. Background: A mother, who has a medically controllable mental illness (bipolar disorder), had a deaf child that another couple received custody of. That couple then sought to have the mother's parental rights terminated so they could adopt the child.
When the mother had the child, she did not want to implant the child. As soon as the couple got emergency custody of the child, they had the child implanted even though the mother's parental rights had not been terminated yet! Plus, the mother's parental rights were terminated, but she successfully appealed. However, even though she won her appeal according to this legal document, it is too late - her son has already been implanted against her wishes.
But there is more revealed in this document. This document reveals a strong bias in favor of cochlear implants on the part of the other people in the child's life. For example, the child's school wanted him to have cochlear implants. A teacher at the school said the child should have gotten implants earlier. It was said that the mother did not make the child wear his hearing aids all the time. The mother did not want her son implanted because of her concerns over possible anesthesia effect.
My concern about cases like this one, and this older one about a mother who did not want her children implanted while in foster care, blogged about years ago on About.com, is this: lack of respect for the wishes of the person who is still the legal parent even if they do not have custody at the time.
This is just appallingly unethical – the foster parents had no right to push this surgery on the child, and the doctors were very unethical in going ahead with it. What happened to “First Do No Harm”?
We implanted our child – it was a resounding failure – and now some people push us for the ABI. We are done. Our child is a happy signer and a star at Deaf school. Not hearing is not the end of the world, no matter how much hearing people think it is. For the record, we are both hearing parents!
@Jamie: Do you have a timeline for this story? How old was the child at the waypoints in his life?
All the information, including the child’s age, is in the legal document that I linked to.
Unbelievable! Who are these teachers telling them that they need to implant the child? As a teacher of children with deafness, I am appalled by this. I As professionals, we are supposed to provide information, and let the parents make what they think is the best decision. It is up to the parents.
The biological mother’s mental illness, treatable or not, must have worked against her. Deaf people think they have it bad–but really the people with mental illnesses are the ones who are often dismissed or ignored.
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Unbelievable! The foster parents didn’t have the right to do this without parental consent! How would they like it if it was done them? And, Who do the teachers think they are? It’s a teachers job to give the parents info, and let them make the decision.
Must be happening more than we know. My deaf son’s daughter was implanted at age 13 months. He was there but did not want it. The clinic, Spokane Ear Nose and Throat, got an interpreter to explain the risks and benfits, but they conveniently left out telling him that if he didn’t want it done he could write a letter of dissent and they legally would not have been able to do it. That was back in 2003. In 2007, the mother put down her husband as the child’s father on the clinic information sheet and had a second implant done. My son knew nothing about it until the child showed her paternal grandmother. Now the mother is fighting in court to have his visits supervised claiming he doesn’t keep her implants on her! She will probably win as he can’t get an attorney to represent him because none want to in N. Idaho when they learn they have to pay for the interpreter!
If the tables were turned — if custodial parents were against implantation and birth mother wanted her child to have an implant, how would you argue?