>From: Jason and Holly Harper <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: playing devil's advocate... >Do the same people that feel it's wrong to breed deaf ferrets feel that >it's wrong for deaf humans to produce offspring? I mean after all >deafness is a defect, right? First, deafness is NOT a defect. No disability or handicap (and personally, I am not too fond of those descriptions, either) is a defect and it is about time folks get over the stupid idea that disabilities are defects in either humans or ferrets. They are not. Deaf ferrets can and do learn to use the litter box, answer to stimulus, learn acceptable socialization skills, and interact with other ferrets and humans. Deaf ferrets play, vocalize, and show affection. They are not defective, broken, malfunctioning, or out of order. They are living creatures who respond to, and are capable of returning love and affection. There will always be humans who tell stories about how much extra time and care deaf ferrets can be. Those stories have less to do with the minor problems concerning the ferrets and more with showing how "special" the human is to endure under extreme circumstances. Well, gillywonkers to them. Secondly, the "devil's advocate" argument regarding deaf humans producing offspring is mixing apples and oranges. Deafness is not a mental disorder - deaf humans are aware of the problems they face and able to adapt to the special circumstances facing infant care. Ferrets, on the other hand, still rely on instinctual patterns of infant care that have been well explained by another poster. FSG [Posted in FML issue 3114]