Harlan Lane
(Matthews Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University)

will be speaking on Wednesday, September 27th

at 5 PM

http://www.psych.neu.edu/people/faculty/lane.html

“Deaf Ethnicity and the Failure of Medical Ethics”
Place: Stone Science Center (675 Comm. Ave.) B50

ASL/English interpreters will be present.

Abstract: This address is concerned with the language minority in North America called the Deaf-World and the larger society that engulfs it. I aim to show that this minority has the properties of an ethnic group, and that an unsuitable construction of the Deaf-World as a disability group has led to programs of the majority that discourage Deaf children from acquiring the language and culture of the Deaf-World and that aim to reduce the number of Deaf births—programs that are unethical from an ethnic group perspective. Four reasons not to construe the Deaf-World as a disability group are advanced: Deaf people themselves do not believe they have a disability; the disability construction brings with it needless medical and surgical risks for the Deaf child; it also endangers the future of the Deaf-World; finally, the disability construction brings bad solutions to real problems because it is predicated on a misunderstanding.