Comments on "W(h)ither the Deaf Community?"

Johnston argues that the impact of science and technology on the Australian Deaf community threatens the viability of the community; this entails that the scientists have a moral duty to record and preserve Auslan for posterity. This response analyzes Johnston's moral imperative through the application of intrinsic and extrinsic values, suggesting that an extrinsic argument may be more persuasive. Technology aims to alleviate human suffering; in this case, it also contributes to human suffering by failing to assess the assumptions resulting from conflating human suffering with "deafness as disability." Adopting a social model of disability changes the locus of human suffering; consequently, other uses of technology, such as genetic selection for Deafness, may be justifiable.