Things came too little too late for the tiny"pillow angel" Ashley. There was a story on CNN (where this photo is from) that was written by Amy Burkholder. "Report:"Pillow Angel" surgery broke the law. ( http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/08/ashley.ruling/index.html )
Finally an advocacy group stood up and asked the question "What really happened here?" The Washington Protection and Advocacy System found that Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional medical Center violated the constitutional and common law rights of the "pillow angel" by performing a hysterectomy without a court order from the state.
Due to all the treatments she received, Ashley will never become a woman in her own right. She will never develop any larger, or have any growth spurts due to the treatment she received hormonally.
Ashley is frozen in time as a young child who's body and face will age despite all care by her parents to keep her as childlike as possible.
This angered me before, and although perhaps I've tempered it with time, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have to wonder what happens to Ashley if she outlives her loving parents... Perhaps its not my place to worry about her, but there are so many sick people out there. Keeping someone childlike although an adult is IMHO asking for trouble. Peodophiles dream of children like adults.
Having a developmental disability myself, and two of three children who are also developementally disabled (disadvantaged for you pc people) I worry that when I'm not here what will happen to my children. If I should end up in a state where I can not live beyond the function of machines breathing and beating for me,unless I would have some hope of recovering, I would not want to live in that state. I would have to completely cease all brain function though. I can't imagine what it would be like to die cognizent that I was doing so.
I also would hate not to be able to move. And I have a weird revulsion of most bodily functions/fluids so a vegetative state would not be for me. That said, I couldn't make those decisions for someone else for, or against.
And since Asley is unable to decide, someone needs to advocate for her benefits and human dignaties that she has been deprived of, albiet with "good" intention.
I'm glad someone stepped up for her. It's too bad it wasn't before she was so surgically mutilated that she will never be the Ashley she was created to be.
I pray that this never happens to another child.
No comments:
Post a Comment