Genetic Screening of Deaf Children: Ethical Considerations

Speech development was one of the elements which determined the evolution of the human being as an individual and as a member of a society. Normal hearing at birth is a prerequisite to acquired speech. The paper discusses the ethical problems linked to the use of genetic screening in the diagnosis of hearing loss. To forbid or determine (at request) the birth of a deaf child, to consider deafness to be a culture or a disability, to require the informed agreement for genetic screening are the ethical dilemmas approached in this paper; it is also an analysis of these facts from the point of view of the deaf community and of the people with a normal sense of hearing. The present paper would like to open a debate concerning the recent opportunities which have made possible the early genetic diagnosis and the treatment of deafness with the cochlear implant, the use of cochlear implant leading to the eradication of deafness (as a disability) and therefore, to the disappearance of the deaf culture.