by James Langton in New York
A deaf lesbian couple have admitted deliberately creating what are believed to be the world's first designer handicapped babies.

The two women tracked down a deaf sperm donor to ensure that their daughter, who is now five, would inherit the same inherited hearing disabilty that they both share.

The couple were so pleased with the result that they have just had a second child, called Gauvin, using the same technique. Doctors who examined the boy say he is completely deaf in one ear and has only partial hearing in the other.

In an interview with the Washington Post, the women - Sharon Duchesneau, who gave birth, and Candace McCullough, her lesbian lover - say that they believe deafness is "an identity not a medical affliction that needs to be fixed".

They were so desperate to have children who share their handicap that the women asked their local sperm bank to provide a deaf donor, but were told congential hearing loss immediately disqualifies candidates.

Instead they turned to a deaf male friend for help, producing what they call their first "perfect baby" - their five-year-old daughter Jehanne. Before their son was born, the women said: "A hearing baby would be a blessing; a deaf baby would be a special blessing.''

Both women, who are in their mid thirties, belong to a radical school of thought that believes deafness is a "cultural identity" not a handicap.

They want their children to share the same "experiences" including learning, sign language and going to special schools for the deaf.

They also consulted a "genetic counsellor" before getting pregnant who told them that with Miss Duchesneau's background, that includes four generations of deafness on her mother's side, any child conceived with a deaf sperm donor would have a 50 per cent chance of having the same handicap.

After their daughter's first hearing test, the couple wrote happily in her baby book: "Oct 11, 1996 - no response at 95 decibels - DEAF!'' Their daughter attends a special kindergarten for children with hearing problems.

After tests on their baby son showed he also had severe problems, they decided against giving him a deaf aid in the one ear that still has some hearing, saying they will leave the decision to him when he is older.

The couple's behaviour has appalled children's rights groups in the United States. The conservative Family Research Council said their decision to "intentionally give a child a disability" was "incredibly selfish".

The council's spokesman, Fred Connor, said: "These women are taking the idea of creating so-called designer babies to a horrible new level.''

Even a leading member of the American National Association for the Deaf, Nancy Rarus, said she "can't understand why anyone would want to bring a disabled child into the world".

WTF is wrong with people?


Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]

I wonder if the poor kid will also inherit the "I'm dumb as a f*cking post" gene.

Also wonder how old he will get before he beats the crap out of/or whacks out one of these defective bitches.

If YOU were on the jury, would YOU convict?

Freaks who should be flogged to death.

I don't care what your sexual preference is... but making sure your baby is deaf is sick.

I don't know of many deaf people that WANT a deaf child. Many of the deaf people I know are glad when their child has some sort of hearing, even if it is minimal.

Av.

I think this was already posted.

[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=106300[/url]

Still... stupid damned bitches... One can only hope that they are slowly and painfully bludgeoned to death by their poor deaf children.

Can anyone provide a link to the Washington Post story to verify that this in, in fact, true?

Or should we just consider this an semi-official Urban Legend (tm) now?

Sources, gentlement, sources!

These people are fucking stupid.


Plain and Simple.

[url]http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=545846&in_review_text_id=511810[/url]


Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]

One can only hope...

I love our brave new, tolerant, diverse world...

[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/sadness.gif[/img]

Found it!

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23194-2002Mar27.html[/url]

Geez!

F that!!
Gay people is god's sick way to sort out the gene pool. These women have to go!

This is weird decussion, cause I feel this way.....

I hope (I hate saying that cause child will suffer) that this child grows up to hate what his "parents?" (how could gay  couples be parents)  did to him and her, and whenthat child get older, they will speak out agaist this.

But since the children wil be brainwashed from the get go, the child will grow up to feel like its "special", then became an elitist like his and her parents, cause for someone to "Create" a child like this, has to like playing some form of God.

I wish these two fools everything that they deserve.  No baby should have someone that stupid as a parent and he has two!  Watch-Six

I hope that the child grows up and SUES them. Oh, the irony. This kind of behavior is criminal in nature and should be punishable by law. Why would you want to make your child's life more difficult than it already is. Tales from the shallow end of the gene pool.......

sigh [V]

This has come up in other places.

What we see here is a totally unexpected side effect of coddling kids with specal needs and not mainstraming them with other, normal children. Right now deaf people of a certain age- between 25 and 35- are caught up in a culture war. Between those like these two women who have come to see themselves as a culture apart, and those who want to be mainstream.

Deaf people in this age group are the ones who have benefited from the advances in educating handicapped children developed in the 60s and 70s, so for the first time in history you find in north america and western europe a situation where every deaf person is not only educated but WELL educated and capable of not only having a independant life but being very successful.

Creating deaf children is only one front. Another front is over the increasing number of devices and surgical procedures that are allowing the deaf to hear. The reality is that congenital deafness may soon become the first congenital condition that medicine has a one hundred percent cure for. Already the majority of children born today afflicted with hearing problems can be helped with surgery  or hearing aids or both enough that they need not learn Sign Language. Because there is a real possiblity their may not be any deaf children growing up to be deaf adults in a few decades some deaf adults are worried that the special programs that have allowed them to become successful will be done away with. And they will become isolated- cause many of the treatments successful on children do not work on adults they will still be deaf and using sign and no one will understand them.

So some are trying to argue that they are a seperate culture that nedes to be preserved hence this sillyness.  Now wether the children should be taken away has to do entirely with the ability of medecine to fix their hearing. In the case of the new boy, he sounds like someone who could be helped to live a normal life with the latest techniques. That could be a probelm since by the time he is 18 and can legally decide he wants the procedures done, he may be too old for them to work.

My folks still like 60 Minutes and all the network shows.
A few years ago I was watching it with them, and they had a segment about a deaf girl. They could put in an implant so she could hear, but some deaf rights group was protesting saying it was killing their culture and her heritage and stuff like that.
My mom said "Those people want her to stay deaf because they are jealous."
True words.

Yeah, jealousy is probably part of it, especally for those who could hear and then lost it. For people who have never heard a peep in their lives, I think its more motivated by fear that things like TDD will be done away with.

Course as the internet expands and things like text messaging come into greater availability, things like TDD are obsolete anyway.

It seems though that a lot of deaf children have grown up to be isolated adults who only deal with other deaf people and are afraid of those that can hear... that was not the intent of creating the special schools and programs for them over the last hundred years. But it seems to be a common thread that these deaf radicals live with other deaf people, socalize with other deaf people, and when they are with other deaf people they don't like having people who can hear around... It seems to go back all the way to their school days, when they were only around other deaf students, went to musicless proms with only other deaf students, the segrigation designed to prevent them from being tormented by children who could hear ends up producing people who are afraid to be around people who [i]can[/i] hear because they think that they are always making fun of them behind their backs. Lately even many of the tutors for the deaf are deaf themselves! And because no one went through with making all kids learn Amerslan in school those dependant on sign still cant really carry on a conversation with anyone EXCEPT other deaf people- result you get some who feel that they are a closed "special" society.

Oh my heck.  That is so fvcked up I'm speechless.  You would think that they would want a baby with superhearing.  If they wanted a deaf kid, they should have adopted one that is already deaf.  I am sure that there are a number of deaf kids waiting to be adopted.

It is bad enough that they have to deal with having lesbo parents, but this just tops it off.  Its a sick sad world.

Wrong...just plain f-ing wrong!

medcop

Very good point, they SHOULD've adopted.
This just prooves that they are elitist.
They want a child they can brain wash from the get go.

I thought that one of the driving principles of a parenthood was to give their kids a better life than the parent.  To do something like this purposefully is so wrong is staggers the imagination.

Y'all are forgetting one of the best parts:

We'll be paying for these childresn [I]special [/I] education for the next 18 years.

[b]Mattja-  Freaks who should be flogged to death[/b]

I was thinking more like burn the bitches at the stake.

Unbelievable. Not only is the human race the only species of animal that propigates it's own sick, weak and crippled, now some are actually constructing handicaps intentionally.

Unreal....what a freak show we live in.

what do you expect when you let freaks like this have children?

Having taken extensive courses in American Sign, I can understand their culture and pride they take in it.  HOWEVER, as a parent, they would still have the ability to sign and introduce a perfect healthy baby into deaf culture.  What you probably have here is the carpet licker effect.  I hope this sort of thing takes the wind out of Rosie O'Donuts sails by showing that homosexuals have children out of self centered reasons and do not have the children's best interests at heart.  

This reminds me of those am putee fetish freaks who spend time and money looking for doctors to cut various body parts off of them.

F'ed up beyond belief...

From my perspective, the world would be better off without certain people.

DrMark

First off, I in no way support what they did.  

Second, you obviously have had no exposure to the deaf CULTURE, and yes it is a culture.  They are a tight knit bunch of people who use a form of speech that many equate to an art form.  If you do some reading, you'll find what I'm talking about.  Their schools, mentallity and way of life in no way portray a handicap.  Wouldn't you like it this way?  They don't ask for handouts, they coexist with normal people, they are more than willing to teach someone to sign and they in no way harbor ill will towards the hearing.  

However, they would not trade their way of life for the way you and I live.  UNLESS they went deaf after years of hearing, then there is an effort made by those people to get back to "normal."  People born deaf never think they are anything but normal.  It may be a handicap to you and I, but if you never had hearing, then would you see it as a handicap?  Nope, its just what you are.

I have arrived at the following conclusion...

"Stupid people shouldn't breed."

Add to the list of crap I am sick of...

1. Artificial insemination for people whose lifestyle would prevent them from otherwsise having children.

2. Fertility drugs that result in record multiple births.

3. Financial assistance to ANYONE currently on Federal Assistance programs who get pregnant AGAIN.

Forced sterilization for anyone on Government assistance of any kind, Norplant is NOT permanent. And they can choose to reject the assistance and go it alone. Also for people with severe mental handicaps.

And yes, I know the Nazis did things like this and worse. But the Nazis also breathed air. You gonna stop breathing just because the Nazis did it?

This has got to be a JOKE!
" Did you hear about the 2 Lesbians who hired a deaf sperm donor......."
There's got to be a punchline....Anyone care to give it a try?

I think that it would only be fair if deaf people started to engineer mute lesbian babies.[shock]