Imagine the seeing soundwaves move through the air during a rave. Cones and disks fly around the room. Music is a strong form of human expression, but many people are born unable to experience this. Due to deformities in the connection between the ear and the brain, many children cannot perceive sound. Using cochlear implants, a chip can be inserted into the brain that reads sound from an external receptor, allowing the user to hear. Many are opposed to this technology, seeing it as a dangerous threat to "deaf culture" a developing form subculture in communities around America. But trying to ban this technology is immoral in preventing children from reaching fuller potential while also dangerous in denying the basic ability to hear.
One of the greatest responsibilities humans have today is that of optimizing the future for their children. In the documentary Sound and Fury by Josh Aronson, a deaf family does not allow their daughter to get an implant, for fear of her leaving the "deaf world". But in the film, the father admits that, even if he can make money, he will never be able to go very far in business due to his hearing limitation [Aronson]. According to Emmanuel Kant, morality is based on maintaining the full autonomy and safety of others. Denying a daughter the potential to become successful is a grave violation of Kantian morality [Kant]. Even for other cases, when implants are made in a baby who is not old enough to make a decision, the autonomy denied is overridden by the future autonomy provided.
Hearing is part of life and a lack of it is often death. It is part of communication. Humans have hearing, much because years ago, as described by Cambell Biology, an animal randomly sprouted ear-like structures and all of its cousins without those ear structures died. In a more modern example, the Prius, an extremely silent car, has been considered very dangerous because people cannot hear it. Whether a lack of hearing enhances vision or culture, human society is still far too based on hearing as a survival technique. In Aristotle's examination of communication, he identified it as one of the most important parts of life. Communication requires the receiver of a message to be receptive of different messages. It is also part of human life. Denying communication, in general, is a dangerous idea, especially considering the fact that forced deafness limits thinking to visual and emotional, but not active reading. Deaf society may be an expression of human art, but even KHH, the F-period biology teacher at Polytechnic school agrees, that music, or even talking and film involve their own forms of art.
Deaf society in America has been, for a long time, an invisible collection of communities who support each other, but is transforming into something more. Because the majority of the world is based on hearing and spoken language, the only means to maintain morality while banning cochlear implants is in the creation of a radical deaf community. Calling sign language a foreign language is a dangerous way of alienating other humans. But separate cannot be equal. Allowing access to a culture, not denying it, is more progressive to both cultures.
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