I think the process of becoming disabled and the early process of adapating is certainly a net negative, but that disability itself need not be. Being born deaf means you can't hear, but some deaf people think that is outweighed by things like having a unique experience of language and music. The process of rapidly going deaf, for me, would massively interfere with my life and be pretty awful. But not awful a priori.
My thinking on this is largely informed by Elizabeth Barnes' work тАУ she's one of the more thoughtful 'social model' writers that doesn't just say things like 'actually disability only exists because of ableism' (see this paper arguing that a 'mere difference' theory of disability does not entail that curing disability is immoral or that it is not immoral to cause someone else to become disabled: https://elizabethbarnesphilosophy.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/1/0/38105685/causing_disability.pdf)
I remember having this argument in years ago, and I always think 'if a drug had this side effect in 5% of children when taken by pregnant mothers, would it be allowed on the market?'. A drug that turned their hair blonde would; a drug that turned them deaf wouldn't. It came up during a discussion of thalidomide, but I've found it to be a pretty good gut check.
There are some weird corner cases, like circumcision тАУ as an uncircumcised person that certainly feels like a disability to me, but clearly cultures do it. Children being born infertile would be a disability, but it's definitely something adults choose for themselves. Albinism must feel like a disability in cultures where it's stigmatised. These examples are really just thought experiments though, I agree with all your points on disability in general.
The experience of becoming deaf as an adult seems radically different from that of growing up deaf, learning sign language, and using it with others fluent in it. I preferred "The Gentrification of Disability." Here in some places, as I read the piece, you use your valid concerns about some cultural and linguistic trends to indict diagnoses without conveying any understanding of them, conditions deserving more serious consideration if you're going to mention them at all (ME-CFS stood out to me in particular).
You have the ability to render yourself permanently deaf. Why haven't you?
I think the process of becoming disabled and the early process of adapating is certainly a net negative, but that disability itself need not be. Being born deaf means you can't hear, but some deaf people think that is outweighed by things like having a unique experience of language and music. The process of rapidly going deaf, for me, would massively interfere with my life and be pretty awful. But not awful a priori.
My thinking on this is largely informed by Elizabeth Barnes' work тАУ she's one of the more thoughtful 'social model' writers that doesn't just say things like 'actually disability only exists because of ableism' (see this paper arguing that a 'mere difference' theory of disability does not entail that curing disability is immoral or that it is not immoral to cause someone else to become disabled: https://elizabethbarnesphilosophy.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/1/0/38105685/causing_disability.pdf)
If you cannot hear the person behind you shouting that you're about to walk into an open pit that is a huge disadvantage in my book.
And yet there's nothing inherent to being deaf that means that will happen to you, so once again it isn't bad 'by definition'.
With cochlear implants are you still by definition deaf versus merely hearing impaired?
I remember having this argument in years ago, and I always think 'if a drug had this side effect in 5% of children when taken by pregnant mothers, would it be allowed on the market?'. A drug that turned their hair blonde would; a drug that turned them deaf wouldn't. It came up during a discussion of thalidomide, but I've found it to be a pretty good gut check.
There are some weird corner cases, like circumcision тАУ as an uncircumcised person that certainly feels like a disability to me, but clearly cultures do it. Children being born infertile would be a disability, but it's definitely something adults choose for themselves. Albinism must feel like a disability in cultures where it's stigmatised. These examples are really just thought experiments though, I agree with all your points on disability in general.
The experience of becoming deaf as an adult seems radically different from that of growing up deaf, learning sign language, and using it with others fluent in it. I preferred "The Gentrification of Disability." Here in some places, as I read the piece, you use your valid concerns about some cultural and linguistic trends to indict diagnoses without conveying any understanding of them, conditions deserving more serious consideration if you're going to mention them at all (ME-CFS stood out to me in particular).
Yes, that one is beyond excusability.