The Eli Implant

The cochlear implant has revolutionized our ability to hear, and new technologies are in the works to enhance all of our senses. It is a reminder that too often our spiritual hearing is impaired, and like Samuel, we need an implant to hear the voice of God.

January 23, 2000

To talk about implants is to risk being risqué.

You know what I'm talking about. Thirty million women in this country alone who want to be drop-dead gorgeous have them --silicone enhancements, augmentations, enlargements. Some, notably Pamela Anderson Lee, in extraordinary moments of sanity, have them removed.

Not all implants, however, are purely cosmetic. Today, biomedical technology can provide retinal implants, artificial corneas, vocal implants, not to speak of entire organ implants -- not transplants, but artificial implants -- the heart, for example.

One of the most successful implants is the controversial cochlear implant -- a device which, when implanted inside the human skull, connected with tiny wires to the cochlear canal in the inner ear, then fastened to an externally placed microphone, allows a sort of hearing for the hearing-impaired.

The cochlear implant gives the deaf ears to hear, but with it, can they listen? That's the question asked about the...