Just because we can create superhumans, should we?
By Faith McLellan
ARTICLE EXTRAS
When the phone rang at my parents' house some years ago, our plumber was on the other end of the line. My father got more and more animated as he listened, then exclaimed loudly, obviously pleased and excited. When he hung up, he ran through the house, looking for my mother, shouting that he had just talked to John! (Not his real name.) John himself! Directly! Not his wife!
This was indeed an astonishing turn of events: Our friend and plumber had had profound hearing loss for most of his adult life. For years, all his business transactions had been relayed through his wife. But John had recently had a cochlear implant, and his whole world had been - happily, for him - turned upside down.
I knew what was coming next, and I doubted it would ...
