ABSTRACT
The cochlear implant poses a challenge to culturally affirmative therapy. It has been both exalted as a biomedical breakthrough (Cochlear Corporation, 1994) and disparaged as an instrument of cultural ethnocide (Lane, Hoffmeister, & Bahan, 1996). In the abstract, our positions are so clear! But when we are confronted with this issue head-on in our practices, things may become a bit less clear. My day came on an otherwise peaceful morning, right after my morning coffee. Tommy, an English-speaking 8-year-old boy who had been deaf for the past 2 years, and his two hearing parents had just sat down in my office. I had barely finished getting initial intake information when he fired a fateful question at me-one that would eventually be the title of this chapter.
