the Ashley treatmentFollow

Hrm. I'm torn.

On the one hand, I've seen parents struggle with dependent children once they reached adult size, most memorably this one kid: he was fine until a doctor in El Salvador tried to use forceps to get him out and dinged his soft lil skull and ruined him, developmentally speaking.

The child couldn't speak, his limbs were paralyzed in this t-rex-looking clench, and he never learned to walk so he had a colostomy bag and urine bag and frequently had to be fed through a tube because he never learned to swallow properly and so everytime mom tried to feed him normally, he had pneumonia. He was born at the hospital I saw him at, and all the Interpreters knew him. When I met him, he was 14 and mom was bringing him in because she was concerned about his behavior. Well, it turns out it was puberty. She didn't recognize it, so attuned was she to thinking of this kid as a baby of sorts.

Now mom and dad were selfless as hell. I admired them. They bathed him every day, carried him in and out of his chair, gave him all his meds and hugged and sang to him. They obviously loved him, but it was painful to listen to sometimes. Dad came in behind mom's back one day and tearfully told the doctor that they were both getting old, and it hurt his back to lift his son now, but he had to because his wife was too small, and they didn't want the kid in a home, what could they do? When I think of these folks, I think that this kind of therapy could be a help, but then again, you'd never get to see your kid as an adult, and you'd be putting a pause button perhaps on all other development only for your own convenience...

Hrm.

Given the circumstances, is the child being harmed in any way? Is she going to miss out on anything if her body doesn't mature in womanhood? It's not as though this is going to keep her from going to her prom or anything -- judging from the article, the girl is locked into the mental stage of a three month old. Sure it's being done as a convenience to the parents but not at a loss to the child.

I suppose there's a question of "If we do this to this girl then what's the cut off?" but, whatever the cut off is, I don't see it as being with Ashley.

On more asshole like behavior from moi...So does a fucking brick. I don't know if that makes it an angel.

I totally see a new craze of black market "Perpeutal Babies!" in like 80 years.

apparently you do now!

I can think of several benefits to the child as well including not having to deal with the various effects of puberty and basic quality of care that the parents can give her if she isn't 5'6" and 160 lbs.

What's she missing out on? Menstral cramps and the chance to get knocked up by some molesting intern at a care facility?

This may be a case where "putting her out of her misery" could come into play.

Why?

When you could sell her into a life of sexual servitude. I mean killing her would cost money, having to take care of her would cost money. Selling her for sex would MAKE money and afterall she wouldnt be capable of either liking or disliking a 40 year old american sex tourist having his way with her. Much like she wouldnt like or dislike being hormonally held back in a childs body for her parents convenience.

SHort people gots no reason to live!

yeah, i'm a heightist.

While the surgeries and the concept are disgusting and creepy, I can't say that after 9 years of watching my daughter suffer and barely live that I wouldn't consider the same for her.

This isn't like they did it in the backyard with a BBQ fork and tree bark either. This must have cost tens of thousands of dollars as well.

Torn on this one, but leaning towards the parents.

Sell the meat?

I don't see this as that tough of a decision, whether your WITH the parents' decision, or against it. It seems pretty simple to me.

She has the mentality of a 3 month old, and, supposedly, will ALWAYS have the mentality of a 3 month old.

Her body would, naturally, mature. She'd go through puberty, which, in biological terms, is only really good for a person if he/she wants to have children.

Ashley, with the mentality of someone FAR younger than her age, would NOT be able to take care of anything, let alone her own child.

So, going through puberty serves no point in enhancing the quality of Ashley's life.

Stunting her growth ALSO allows her to always be able to play/interact with other children who have a mentality close to her "perpetual mentality" without having the body of a 24 year old, and thus being less intimidating to children, and easier to get along with.

For Ashely's sake, AND her parents' sake, keeping her small will help TREMENDOUSLY with caring for her and giving her what she needs. She can't go to school, because 3 month old children DON'T go to school, and she wouldn't be able to do anything at all if she were to go to school, besides be a bother to the teachers.

Mentally handicapped children often have different classes directed at helping them with understanding and the "special care" that they require. Ashley's special care is 24/7, as is an infant's. She needs her parents all the time, for everything.

I see no controversy here. She's lost nothing at all. She wouldn't even KNOW that her body was changing, or that she could walk, talk, tie her own shoes, etc, because her brain can't process it.

Kudos to the parents and to the technology and research that let such a procedure occur.

Slippery Slope? Yeah, maybe, but can't we tackle that when it comes, and for now agree that this was the best course of action for this child?

I have mixed feelings about this. One thing I will say is that I wonder if slowing down or preventing sexual maturation is also an attempt to prevent this kid from being victimized. I used to work with non-verbal Autistic adults and found out that the group by far most likely to get molested (resulting in a very high rate of STDs) are kids with mental retardation, especially if they aren't verbal. Now I think that there are people who would victimize them regardless of sexual attributes but I think that this must be part of it.

From what I recall, post-pubescent people with mental retardation are at higher risk of being molested than prepubescent people.

Edited, Jan 5th 2007 1:25pm by annabellaonalexander

It's the Santa hat and fake beard.