Case narrative

After an uneventful pregnancy, a woman delivers a healthy baby boy. Prior to discharge from the hospital, the infant undergoes newborn screening and is found to be prelingually deaf with complete sensorineural hearing loss. The family is referred to an audiologist who recommends a cochlear implant for the child. He is physically an ideal candidate and an implant would give him the best chance at spoken communication.

The parents, who are both culturally Deaf, oppose the cochlear implant. They view his deafness as a part of who he is rather than as a deficit or a disability requiring medical intervention. They desire for their son to fully share in their family’s culture and communicate fluently with them in ASL, their native language. They worry that an implant could potentially inhibit his full participation in their community. They also express fears that an implant would signal to their child and society that something was wrong with him by viewing his deafness as pathological rather than an integral piece of his identity.