| Saturday, January 06, 2007 |
| The Ashley Treatment |
There's been a lot of press this week about a controversial decision made by the parents of a severely disabled child known simply as The Ashley Treatment
Basically, with the mental capacity of a three month old, and no hope of a functional, adult life, the parents decided that it would be physically easier to care for Ashley and integrate her into family activities if she were to remain physically stunted. After careful review by an ethics panel, they removed her uterus, and started giving her hormones to stunt her growth.
Obviously, a lot of people are outraged at this, but I'm not sure why. I think allowing Ashley to grow older in the care and comfort of her family that loves her, is better than allowing her to grow to adulthood, where her older parents may not be physically able to care for her and would move her to a nursing facility, where, let's face it, she would vegetate.
Besides, I don't see this as any different than the patients that come to our institute who are much smaller than "normal", and face a life of inconvenience and outright disability in a world of taller people. With human growth hormones, and limb lengthening technology, we can give them up to a foot or more of additional height.
It's not without risk, and all our patients are carefully screened for psychological issues, and it's not done blithely or routinely, but it is done, and it's done in increasing numbers with excellent results.
I happen to think that under the circumstances, Ashley's parents are trying to provide the best quality of life for their daughter within the limits of her devastating illness. |
posted by Broadsheet @ 9:14 AM   |
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| 1 Editorial Opinions: |
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Having cared for my grandmother after her stroke until her death, I can see how the difficulty in caring for a larger person.
However, the sexual aspects of the surgeries are very, very creepy.
I think the publicity on this case will lead to pedophiles abusing girls from Eastern Europe and Asia in ways even worse than today.
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Having cared for my grandmother after her stroke until her death, I can see how the difficulty in caring for a larger person.
However, the sexual aspects of the surgeries are very, very creepy.
I think the publicity on this case will lead to pedophiles abusing girls from Eastern Europe and Asia in ways even worse than today.