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Severely disabled girl 'kept small'
news.com.au ^ | November 02, 2006

Posted on 11/01/2006 4:38:55 PM PST by Piefloater

IN a controversial treatment, doctors in the US have given a severely disabled child drugs to keep her small and 'manageable' for her parents.

In a report published in a medical journal this month, the doctors described a six-year-old girl with profound, irreversible developmental disability who was given high doses of estrogen to permanently halt her growth so that her parents could continue to care for her at home.

The controversial growth-attenuation treatment, which included hysterectomy, was requested by the child's parents and initiated after careful consultation and review by an ethics committee.

In their report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, doctors Daniel F. Gunther and Douglas S. Diekema, both at the University of Washington in Seattle, explained the reasoning behind what they hoped would generate healthy debate.

Dr Gunther is at the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, and Dr Diekema is at the Centre for Pediatric Bioethics.

Caring for children with profound developmental disabilities could be difficult and demanding, they said.

For children with severe combined neurologic and cognitive impairment who are unable to move without assistance, all the necessities of life – dressing, bathing, transporting – must be provided by caregivers, usually parents, and these tasks become increasing difficult, if not impossible, as the child increases in size.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


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KEYWORDS: moralabsolutes
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To: merry10

Those two situations aren't even in the same league. What's wrong with you?


61 posted on 11/01/2006 6:37:17 PM PST by ukie55
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To: KevinGray
actually I think this is a terrific idea.
She most likely had a complete hyst to keep her calm, puberty is not a pretty thing in the severely mentally retarded. and to prevent the difficulties and problems of menstruation.
62 posted on 11/01/2006 6:52:29 PM PST by mlmr (CHICKIE-POO!)
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To: wagglebee

And there are full-grown adults with similar disabilities and their caregivers are able to take care of them.



No. there are people paid to care for them, who do it, sometimes in a slipshod mannner.


63 posted on 11/01/2006 6:55:30 PM PST by mlmr (CHICKIE-POO!)
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To: adiaireton8

That would be better than stunting her. But better still would be for the parents to sacrifice just a bit more, and care for at home even if she grows to adult-size.

-
Honey. she was stuntd from the get-go. If you can say something so callous as give a little more, to people who are sacrificing every day...you are out of touch.


64 posted on 11/01/2006 6:58:37 PM PST by mlmr (CHICKIE-POO!)
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To: piasa

Overdosing her on estrogen may very likely give her breast cancer.

So what?


65 posted on 11/01/2006 6:59:21 PM PST by mlmr (CHICKIE-POO!)
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To: mlmr
No. there are people paid to care for them, who do it, sometimes in a slipshod mannner.

Yes there are full-grown adults with similar disabilities cared for by loved ones. They may get a nurse to assist them, especially for nights. But there are people who do it. As for "slipshod", it happens in the institutions as well.

-A8

66 posted on 11/01/2006 7:00:47 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: mlmr
actually I think this is a terrific idea. She most likely had a complete hyst to keep her calm, puberty is not a pretty thing in the severely mentally retarded. and to prevent the difficulties and problems of menstruation.

Puberty is not pretty thing in girls of any range of mental retardation. On your logic, we should therefore give them all hysterectomies.

-A8

67 posted on 11/01/2006 7:02:59 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: mlmr
she was stuntd from the get-go.

Apparently in your opinion, if a person is already stunted, then it is ethically permissible to stunt them even further.

That's like saying that if a person lost one leg, then it is ethically permissible to remove the other.

-A8

68 posted on 11/01/2006 7:06:28 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: Asclepius
The so-called right-to-death partisans have finally developed an argument that can sway me. Were I this child I would rather die, and die cruelly, than be medically altered for the convenience of my parents.

If the parents wanted "convenience", they could simply hand the child over a state institution and be done with it instead trying to keep the child at home as long as they possibly can like they desire to do.

Once a severely mentally disabled person gets too large to be physically controlled by the parents, no choice is left except institutionalization where, instead of loving parents, they will have muscular attendants to look after them.

69 posted on 11/01/2006 7:09:44 PM PST by Polybius
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To: adiaireton8

If a human adult is little more than vegative and infantile, you can take off both armes and legs as far as I am concerned.


70 posted on 11/01/2006 7:11:36 PM PST by Chickensoup (If you don't go to the holy war, the holy war will come to you.)
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To: adiaireton8

A8 -- getting a home-care nurse takes a whole heckuva lot of money. I went through that with family members. Insurance craps out quickly on that. It's unrealistic for many families to say "get a nurse."

God bless you for your choices in your situation, but that can't help but impact your opinion of families that make a different decision about the best way to care for their child. I would ask you to have some compassion for them and their choices as well.


71 posted on 11/01/2006 7:13:11 PM PST by cammie
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To: adiaireton8

Puberty is not pretty thing in girls of any range of mental retardation. On your logic, we should therefore give them all hysterectomies.

No. Your logic is dramatic, concrete and flawed. There is a huge difference between a functional and aware human and an infantile and profoundly mentally retarded human.


72 posted on 11/01/2006 7:13:25 PM PST by Chickensoup (If you don't go to the holy war, the holy war will come to you.)
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To: Chickensoup
Why do you think it is wrong to remove the arms and legs of a person of normal intelligence, but ethically permissible to remove the arms and legs of a person with the mind of an infant?

-A8

73 posted on 11/01/2006 7:15:42 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: adiaireton8

Why do you think it is wrong to remove the arms and legs of a person of normal intelligence, but ethically permissible to remove the arms and legs of a person with the mind of an infant?

Management.


74 posted on 11/01/2006 7:16:34 PM PST by Chickensoup (If you don't go to the holy war, the holy war will come to you.)
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To: cammie
I do have compassion. But compassion doesn't trump ethics. In fact, disregarding ethics for the sake of compassion is what leads to Jack Kevorkian.

-A8

75 posted on 11/01/2006 7:16:54 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: piasa

"Overdosing her on estrogen may very likely give her breast cancer."

___

I don't think her risk would be substantially higher than the average woman given that her estrogen production has likely been drastically reduced by the hysterectomy. Especially if she had an oomphorectomy (ovaries removed) as well. The two things would likely balance each other out.


76 posted on 11/01/2006 7:17:32 PM PST by cammie
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To: adiaireton8
The girl is now six years old. Of course there will come a day when they can't move her. Nobody disagrees with *that*. The problem is doing something unethical (i.e. stunting the girl's growth) in order to extend the time before that happens.

I'm not positive that it is unethical. Is it more or less ethical than the hysterectomy (which I do support)?

77 posted on 11/01/2006 7:18:15 PM PST by Dianna
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To: Chickensoup
There is a huge difference between a functional and aware human and an infantile and profoundly mentally retarded human.

Indeed there is. So how does that making whacking off the limbs of mentally retarded people ethical?????

-A8

78 posted on 11/01/2006 7:18:55 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: Chickensoup
Management.

Please explain.

-A8

79 posted on 11/01/2006 7:20:29 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: adiaireton8

Well, we disagree. I don't think this is a situation of impermissable "bad means" for "good end." I think this is morally equivocal means for a good end.

Kervorkian's means was "to end life" in order "to relieve pain." I don't believe there is any comparison between ending a life to relieve pain and giving someone a "stay short" injection to permit a better life.


80 posted on 11/01/2006 7:21:25 PM PST by cammie
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