[Aurornis]

> like someone mentioned in a separate comment, you are conflating disease with disability here. when people become too old to walk without assistance, you wouldn't say that they have a walking disease.

This girl's disease was a genetic auditory neuropathy.

They cured her genetic auditory neuropathy.

Pedantic arguments about what it's called are missing the point. The person had a specific disease. It was cured.

[anthony__j]

to you, this is a pedantic argument. but to millions of Deaf people in the US alone, this is a very important political point. for example, lots of Deaf people who prefer to live without cochlear implants face lots of pressure from people who consider deafness to be a "disease" to be "cured", when in fact, they feel their most authentic way of living to be something different. in this way, language is significant

[macksd]

And people who do prefer to live with cochlear implants face pressure from the deaf community itself. You can't win. This was an achievement. A girl who probably saw this as a cure, saw success. Why can't we just be happy for her instead of detracting because others wouldn't make the same choice?

[wizzwizz4]

18-month-olds don't usually have opinions on what does or doesn't count as a 'cure': that's a bit too abstract for most of them. Their parents can.