File This under "THAT SUCKS!"

[Prudence]

What's been explained to me is that it's considered, by some, to be turning your back on the community. Not just that, but having one's self surgically altered to be part of the majority group -- like having surgery to make one's self look more caucasian.

I think the reason there's such a reaction to cochlear implants and not, for example, to surgery to correct vision is that deafness impacts communication. Yes, I know that deaf people read, but the easiest way to communicate with others is through sign language. Sign language isn't a word-for-word translation; it's a different language structure. (Is Braille a letter-for-letter translation? If so, that makes this argument even stronger.) Communication is so central to cultural identity that this makes some sense. And in the deaf community, where mode of communication *is* the distinctive cultural feature, it's perceived by some as an insulting dismissal.

I guess it's sort of like "passing for white." (Yes, this is a crappy out-of-scale analogy, but it's the only thing I could think of that came close to the ire cochlear implants raise with some. Please give me a better example.) There are definite social, economic, political, etc... benefits to fitting in with the dominant culture, but fitting in is a rejection of the minority culture.