May 11, 2023 - 11:06
Hi there! I know this is a little late but before the semester wraps up I wanted to be sure I reflected on Serendip about somethings still on my mind that we discussed in class! One of these things is when we read Designing Deaf Babies.... This personally resonated with me because I am the child of two lesbian women, and thus topics of sperm donation, IVF, and adoption are ones of great interest to me. Reading through the article and learning that this couple picked a donor who was also deaf was not something that shocked or upset me. In fact it made plenty of sense in my eyes. My parents decided to choose a donor with as similar features as possible to my adoptive mother to replicate her as much as possible in the process of having a baby, even though we would not be biologically related. Thus it only made sense to me that they picked a deaf donor to model off of the deaf adoptive parent of the future child. It is as similar to me as my parents picking a donor with brown hair and brown eyes to mimic my own other; just trying to choose a donor who replicates the adoptive parent best. I truly believe that the only reason this situation created such controversy was because our society innately sees Deafness as a loss, and is not familiar at all with Deaf gain. I only hope that this family is happy, and this controversy did not follow them in the future.