Posted on 03/11/2008 7:07:56 PM PDT by forkinsocket
The parents of a girl with Down syndrome have caused a public outcry in the U.K. by subjecting their daughter to cosmetic surgery to improve her appearance.
Georgia Bussey underwent "radical and painful" cosmetic surgery three times by age 5 so she could "fit in" with her peers, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported Sunday.
Parents of another girl with Down syndrome told the paper that they were also considering altering her appearance in the future so she could be more "accepted.”
Critics in the U.K. slammed the parents, with some even claiming the procedures were tantamount to child abuse. However, the parents hit back, saying that no one complained when "normal" children had their ears pinned back.
"Why should it be any different for a Downs child?" asked Georgia’s mother Kim Bussey.
Bussey said she and her husband David were motivated by love for their child and deliberated for a year before putting her through the ordeal.
In the first procedure, Georgia's tongue was reduced to stop it from protruding, according to the paper. Then folds of skin were removed from the inner corners of her eyes to take away the "slantiness characteristic" of Down syndrome. Finally, she had surgery to stop her ears from sticking out.
Bussey said society often judges people on the way they look.
"Society is not going to change overnight – so Georgia has to fit into society, rather than society fitting into the way she is," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Why the outrage? It’ll improve the child’s future.
My cousin has a little girl with DS, and she says that the protruding tongue is caused by a weak suck in infancy, and that early therapy can improve the suck and the eventual mouth shape.
There is likely to come a point in the child’s life, maybe in the early teens, when he or she wants very much to look more like other people. I wonder if the results would be as good then?
"Why should it be any different for a Downs child?" asked Georgia’s mother Kim Bussey.
She's got a point.
Of course, if they had chosen to abort her before she was born, that would have been perfectly OK.
This child is “accepted” by GOD. People who cannot “accept” this child will have some splaining to do...some day.
I can support that idea.
My thoughts exactly. I detect that weird liberal mindset at work here: the fear of anyone escaping the “victim class” by whatever means.
It strikes me that the kid’s the smart one in the family.
My son had a prominant strawberry birthmark just at the top of his lip. We had it removed before he started school. Growing up is hard enough.
Aren’t these the people that want Down’s kids aborted?
Most likely. I have to admit that people with Down’s are some of the best people I have ever met. I know of a family near where I live that has adopted a number of DS children. I go to Wal-Mart and see them all together and have to smile. I mean a warm, all the way to my heart smile.
Soooo....if a man wants to undergo surgery to become a woman (when he’s NOT), that’s a “life affirming personal choice”. But parents who are concerned at helping their child fit in with a sometimes bigoted real world are cruel bastards. Got it.
My niece, sadly raised by Liberals, has a double earlobe, which could have been easily corrected. They make a big thing about how it makes her “special”. I’m so conflicted on it, I’m not sure HOW I feel.
This from the same country that routinely leaves aborted and alive babies on operating tables to die an agonizing death.
I have been to the park with my friend and her DS baby. The looks people give really are painful. I can’t imagine how the baby feels.
Yes it does. I’m going to leave this in the hands of God and the parents though. Someone that did not love these kids with all their heart would not be doing this because they would have sent the child to others to care for. They have the child’s best interest,... more than any of us ever could.
It amazes me the love they can give. I do not have the patience to do what they do, but there is so much love and genuine joy that it just radiates. I am smiling typing this!
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