摘要：Speech development was one of the elements which determined the evolution of
the human being as an individual and as a member of a society. Normal hearing at
birth is a prerequisite to acquired speech. The paper discusses the ethical problems
linked to the use of genetic screening in the diagnosis of hearing loss. To forbid
or determine (at request) the birth of a deaf child, to consider deafness to be a
culture or a disability, to require the informed agreement for genetic screening are
the ethical dilemmas approached in this paper; it is also an analysis of these facts
from the point of view of the deaf community and of the people with a normal
sense of hearing. The present paper would like to open a debate concerning the
recent opportunities which have made possible the early genetic diagnosis and the
treatment of deafness with the cochlear implant, the use of cochlear implant leading
to the eradication of deafness (as a disability) and therefore, to the disappearance
of the deaf culture.
