"Ashley Treatment" for Disabled - Sam Wells
Link: http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/9985
Summary: This article talks about a treatment many people have tried that is known as the "Ashley Treatment." It is a combination of surgery and medication to “freeze-frame” a child by stunting its growth so that he or she will never grow beyond the size of a six or seven-year-old. The treatment radically alters a person’s body without their consent but is said to improve a disabled persons quality of life.
Who has the right to decide if a disabled child should get the treatment if they cannot decide for themselves? Is it automatically the parents choice?
It is wrong on all levels to purposely stifle the development of a human simply for the ease of another. A disabled child has the right to be able to develop into a adult if need be. If parents are allowed this decision, some may opt for the treatment on a basis of wanting a "child" forever.
ReplyDeletein one sense, it seems logical and right that the parents get to decide whether the disabled child should get the treatment because they have a better understanding of the situation and know what’s best with the doctors information. yet at the same times, it is wrong because every person has a right to his are her own body, and a right to decide how to utilize their body. Therefore, the child should be informed on every aspect of the treatment, and from there, with the help of the parents and doctors, decide what to do. However, this is the same way children get baptized or are given shots when babies. The children do not decide, the parents do. Yet these choices are for the better and cause no harm.
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