Deaf designer baby - the issues

The case has raised the issue of 'designer babies'

A lesbian US couple, both of whom are deaf, deliberately chose to try to have a deaf child.

They were successful, and now have two deaf children.

BBC News Online looks at the issues this 'designer baby' case has raised.

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The decision of Sharon Duchesneau and Candy McCullough from Bethesda, Maryland, to do all they could to have a deaf baby has shocked many.

But they are part of a growing movement in the US which believes deafness is not a disability, but a cultural identity.

There are deaf parents who welcome the fact that their baby is born deaf, therefore allowing them to share their cultural identity and language

Stephen Rooney, British Deaf Association

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics said once you allowed couples to have choice over what their baby was like, it was not possible to attack the choices people then made.

He said he had even heard of cases where deaf couples have gone to their doctor, with the suspicion they are having a hearing child, and have asked for it to be aborted.

"Once you have started interfering in the natural process, then different people's ideas of normality are going to have to be considered.

"Deaf people do not believe themselves to be disabled. They are just living as a different normality."

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association. said the case brought up a lot of difficult questions.

"If someone said they wanted to produce a child with a specific disability, most people would condemn that roundly.

"But there's an issue with deafness over whether it's a disability or not."

She added: "On the positive side, one could recognise that in a sense, it's a little bit like if you're going to have a surrogate baby, or adopt.

"You try to make the baby as much like you, so it looks like one of your family.

"These are people who live in a certain way, and if they could have a baby naturally, they would certainly have the possibility of having a baby who was deaf."

Stephen Rooney, spokesman for the British Deaf Association said: "What many hearing people do not understand is that many deaf people are happy to be deaf.

"They are also happy to have a deaf child, as this is not seen to be a problem."

He said: "There are deaf parents who welcome the fact that their baby is born deaf, therefore allowing them to share their cultural identity and language.

"But like the majority of parents, deaf parents would only wish for a happy and healthy child.

"This situation can be paralleled to couples who wish for a girl or a boy, but are happy with whatever the outcome."

Parental duty

He said the real issue was not whether people were trying to design deaf babies, or whether they are straight or gay, or have a child by artificial insemination.

Mr Rooney added: "There will always be deaf parents and many of them will have deaf children and the real issue is the discrimination and lack of educational opportunities that those children face."

What we are seeing is a shift in thinking which turns parents into consumers and children into products

Julie du Plessis, LIFE

But there was concern that the couple were failing in their parental duties to the child.

Professor Alta Charo, an expert in law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, told the Guardian: "I think all of us recognise that deaf children have perfectly wonderful lives.

"The question is whether the parents have violated the sacred duty of parenthood, which is to maximise to some reasonable degree the advantages available to their children.

"I'm loath to say it, but I think it's a shame to set limits on a child's potential."

Children as 'products'

Julie du Plessis, a spokesperson for LIFE, said: "Children are gifts, not 'items' to be ordered up according to parents' specifications. 

"Parents do not have any rights to choose their offspring's disability or ability.  To allow that they do is to go further down the slippery slope to full acceptance of designer-baby parenthood. 

"This depersonalises human procreation and treats children as mere products."

She added if parents were allowed to choose what they wanted, they would also choose what they did not want - perhaps aborting a baby which did not match up to their specifications.

Ms du Plessis added: "What we are seeing is a shift in thinking which turns parents into consumers and children into products. 

"Children should not be created to serve the needs of their parents.  Children should be loved and accepted unconditionally.  This child was born on condition that he was deaf."