Social Science - 7 April 2007

By Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press
CHICAGO — In a case fraught with ethical questions, the parents of a severely mentally and physically disabled child have stunted her growth to keep their little "pillow angel" a manageable and more portable size.
ON DEADLINE: Debate the case, read family's blog

The bedridden 9-year-old girl had her uterus and breast tissue removed at a Seattle hospital and received large doses of hormones to halt her growth. She is now 4-foot-5; her parents say she would otherwise probably reach a normal 5-foot-6.

The case has captured attention nationwide and abroad via the Internet, with some decrying the parents' actions as perverse and akin to eugenics. Some ethicists question the parents' claim that the drastic treatment will benefit their daughter and allow them to continue caring for her at home.

University of Pennsylvania ethicist Art Caplan said the case is troubling and reflects "slippery slope" thinking among parents who believe "the way to deal with my kid with permanent behavioral problems is to put them into permanent childhood."

Right or wrong, the couple's decision highlights a dilemma thousands of parents face in struggling to care for severely disabled children as they grow up.

"This particular treatment, even if it's OK in this situation, and I think it probably is, is not a widespread solution and ignores the large social issues about caring for people with disabilities," Joel Frader, a doctor and medical ethicist at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, said Thursday. "As a society, we do a pretty rotten job of helping caregivers provide what's necessary for these patients."

The case involves a girl identified only as Ashley on a blog her parents created after her doctors wrote about her treatment in October's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The journal did not disclose the parents' names or where they live; the couple do not identify themselves on their blog, either.

Shortly after birth, Ashley had feeding problems and showed severe developmental delays. Her doctors diagnosed static encephalopathy, which means severe brain damage. They do not know what caused it.

Her condition has left her in an infant state, unable to sit up, roll over, hold a toy or walk or talk. Her parents say she will never get better. She is alert, startles easily, and smiles, but does not maintain eye contact, according to her parents, who call the brown-haired little girl their "pillow angel."

She goes to school for disabled children, but her parents care for her at home and say they have been unable to find suitable outside help.

An editorial in the medical journal called "the Ashley treatment" ill-advised and questioned whether it will even work. But her parents say it has succeeded so far.

She had surgery in July 2004 and recently completed the hormone treatment. She weighs about 65 pounds, and is about 13 inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter than she would be as an adult, according to her parents' blog.

"Ashley's smaller and lighter size makes it more possible to include her in the typical family life and activities that provide her with needed comfort, closeness, security and love: meal time, car trips, touch, snuggles, etc.," her parents wrote.

Also, Ashley's parents say keeping her small will reduce the risk of bedsores and other conditions that can afflict bedridden patients. In addition, they say preventing her from going through puberty means she won't experience the discomfort of periods or grow breasts that might develop breast cancer, which runs in the family.

"Even though caring for Ashley involves hard and continual work, she is a blessing and not a burden," her parents say. Still, they write, "Unless you are living the experience ... you have no clue what it is like to be the bedridden child or their caregivers."

Caplan questioned how preventing normal growth could benefit the patient. Treatment that is not for a patient's direct benefit "only seems wrong to me," the ethicist said.

Douglas Diekema, a doctor and ethicist at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, where Ashley was treated, said he met with the parents and became convinced they were motivated by love and the girl's best interests.

Diekema said he was mainly concerned with making sure the little girl would actually benefit and not suffer any harm from the treatment. She did not, and is doing well, he said.

"The more her parents can be touching her and caring for her ... and involving her in family activities, the better for her," he said. "The parents' argument was, 'If she's smaller and lighter, we will be able to do that for a longer period of time.'"

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

2007-04-07 16:08:58 · 2 answers · asked by Carla B 2 in Psychology

I caught my man up with himself. I looked through his phone and found someone he was textin @ like1 and 2 in the morning and that number wasn't saved so i put it in my phone, then I found a different number that he was calling blocked and I put that in my phone too. I put his phone back and texted the random number like "hi this is____(my mans name) and my phone is dead. You still want me to come over?" this number texted back rite away and was like yes I miss you. Then i kept going on and finally I got a phone call from the number I saved out of his phone that he was calling blocked!!! I didnt answer and I knew some how these 2 numbers were tied together. So i waited until he came back in the room with me and called the number I was texting on speakerphone! A girl quickly answered and said( _______ my mans name) ive been thinkin about you all day baby. His jaw dropped and I said oh f***en really this is his girlfriend. She said well your man is my man and Im 2 months pregnant!!!!!

2007-04-07 15:55:12 · 16 answers · asked by Secrets donT maKE fr!endS 1 in Psychology

what does it mean when you miss the bus in a dream?

2007-04-07 15:52:17 · 11 answers · asked by Shannon A 1 in Psychology

why is my ex girlfriend giving me mixed signals, she sends me emails about love everytime i talk to her and then when i try to work it out she says she onyl wants to be friends. Im fine with that but ex's dont send each other emails about love (unless im wrong) and thats not a part of a platonic relationship particullarly if that person if your ex.

HELP!

2007-04-07 15:35:43 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Psychology

How do you do it?
And Is it dangerous at all? Or freaky? my friend said she was trying to hypnotize herself, and wound up getting a night terror sort of thing??

2007-04-07 15:30:24 · 2 answers · asked by Jacquelineceee 1 in Psychology

2007-04-07 13:49:22 · 2 answers · asked by ASheka F 1 in Psychology

2007-04-07 12:37:56 · 27 answers · asked by Moparty4 1 in Psychology

If I am living next door to Alice then who the F is Boris?

2007-04-07 12:05:20 · 5 answers · asked by δώδεκα 5 in Psychology

Hi, I'm 22 & have been working in a bank the last couple of years. I would like to train to be a social worker or a counselor. I plan on doing an evening course in Dubin Business School but was wondering if anyone knew a job I could apply for to work during the day that would enable me to gain experience in that field.

I've no qualifcations for anything in this area so finding it hard to see jobs I am suitable for. They can be administrative I guess but if you've any idea's please let me know!

Thanks a mil :)

2007-04-07 11:20:45 · 12 answers · asked by Sofia 2 in Other - Social Science

have you nearly reached the edge of your relationship and then realised that you do actually love this person?

has something suddenly re-awakened your feelings?

please tell me your stories xxx

2007-04-07 11:18:12 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Psychology

2007-04-07 11:07:14 · 28 answers · asked by fishionuk 2 in Psychology

2007-04-07 10:35:47 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Psychology

ok, i think a lot of people don't exactly get my question. when women get sexual attention from guys, they take it differently depending on who it's from. i'm not talking about stalking or constant firting or sexual harassment. i'm just talking about if a guy just shows interest in you, not in a sexually explicit way. for most women, if they are walking in the street and a group of construction workers is checking them out, they will be creeped out and annoyed. but if they're at the movie theater and a group of cute high school boys is checking them out, they are flattered and they love it. even though they're not really interested in either, how come they have double standards? why is it perfectly ok for some guys to show their interest in women and not for others? do you think this is fair?

i'm asking this in the women's studies section, because it's about women. please give me a helpful answer.

2007-04-07 10:29:26 · 22 answers · asked by ? 2 in Gender Studies

Question associated with human movement aspect of sport psycology

2007-04-07 10:29:12 · 2 answers · asked by G. IJEBU-ODE 1 in Psychology

I am never in my room. Any ideas on how I can get myself to be in my room more??

2007-04-07 10:06:34 · 12 answers · asked by tinax3 2 in Psychology

My friend wants to learn karate so she can protect
herself for "future use" but she's uncertain about
it. I mean does it really help you or just make you
more anxious about the people around you? Then
my older sister went and bought a gun saying that
she'll just have it for protection; as in "just in case"
But really does the knowledge of a learning self
defense and having a gun really protect you?
I know; I'm a bit skeptical.

2007-04-07 09:31:32 · 10 answers · asked by Callie 2 in Psychology

Why do you fantasize about ....firemen? And other such uniformed men?

Is it something to do with wanting to dominated by authority figures?

2007-04-07 09:29:29 · 41 answers · asked by Anonymous in Gender Studies

2007-04-07 09:15:22 · 9 answers · asked by MICHEAL A 1 in Psychology

I dont even know where to start really.

My mum and dad divorced when i was 5, and before they divorced, my dad was violent.

Then my mum hooked up with a man who was just as bad.

For reasons that i dont want to go into too deeply,( lets just say abuse and leave it at that) i went into foster care when i was 14.

Had horrible foster parents for 3 years, then gor placed with lovely foster parents.

Moved out of foster care @ 18 y/o, and am now 29, with 3 kids of my own, and still cant get on with my real family at all.

We see each other 4/5 times a year, and on the surface, everything seems fine, but no one discusses all the stuff that happened years ago.

although i am happy with my life, i just cant seem to move on or forget all the stuff from my past, and would love to just forget about it and move on, please help me!

2007-04-07 09:11:07 · 19 answers · asked by ? 6 in Psychology

The recent pet food scare caused me to wonder what might happen if scores of canned foods from China were tainted with weird DNA, toxins or other microbes.

Do rational people allow the majority of food they import, to be supplied by a former Communist enemy?

Are the leaders who encourage such economic insanity really friendly to its constituents?

2007-04-07 08:39:49 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Economics

Being 17 a reality that annoys the hell out of me is having to have this or that degree for you to be taken seriosuly.
if one self educates and simply talks with people who do know about teh subject and you read about the subject which was written by people who know about the subject....I really don't see why autodidactic individuals aren't taken as serisouly as someone with a degree in whatever field. Someone can't write a book about physics and be taken serisouly if he has not spent 20 years in a university.

Another reality that annoys me is the incomprehensiveness of difference bewteen individuals. this encompasses war and even relationships.

Another reality that annoys me is that most "future movies" are about something bad such as asteroidal impact or alien invasion. Why don't they make movies depicting utopic ways of living? Wouldn't those give ideas to scientists and architects? Star Trek gives ideas to real scientists. Imagine movies about utopic ways of living!

2007-04-07 08:22:26 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Anthropology

eternity in hell, or a ginger minge?

2007-04-07 08:14:32 · 22 answers · asked by Floppy Dick 2 in Gender Studies

2007-04-07 07:46:13 · 21 answers · asked by bobo 2 in Economics

When I am in a conversation with people I feel stupid and like I dont know what to say. Even in high school I sucked at conversating. The only time I am good at talking is if its with a girl. I don't know whhy but I feel more comfortable talking to girls than guys ( Im a guy), maybe because when I flirt its easy for me but to hold a regualr non-flirting conversation is very hard. Sometimes I feel kinda dumb around people because I feel like I don't know much. Should I read more books to increase my skills? I feel like a real loser at times.

2007-04-07 07:43:57 · 7 answers · asked by NONAME 1 in Psychology

2007-04-07 07:36:43 · 8 answers · asked by astra 5 in Psychology

i need a relyable source from the internet so i can find out what the current percentages of racial groups are in America and what percentage of America makes the minority.

2007-04-07 06:53:41 · 1 answers · asked by ruthvon11 2 in Economics

Okay, so I need any knowlegde anyone has, or papers or articles anyone knows about, that can give me mathmatical data on the effect of increased education on the GDP. Also, if anyone knows of any other countries who have had economic reform and increased their GDP? I need to know statistics about how many unemployed people and people on welfare are that way b/c of under-education. I have looked all over and I am writing a paper on the effects of increased and more structural education on our GDP- and it's turning out to be mostly about the educational changes than the GDP and the numbers which is WRONGWRONGWRONG cuz this is a macroeconomics paper. Help?

2007-04-07 06:52:18 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Economics

2007-04-07 06:27:33 · 18 answers · asked by STORMY K 3 in Psychology

Have they been brainwashed by the notorious patriarchy?

2007-04-07 06:18:53 · 20 answers · asked by Jane 1 in Gender Studies

I really hate myself for past actions and how much I have hurt my daughter, ex-husband and mother-in-law. I don't know how to resolve these feelings.

I tried taking the Landmark Forum, but it did not help. I found it too confrontational, brainwashing and cultish.

How can I learn to accept myself even though I have not lived up to my responsibilities as a mother?

2007-04-07 06:10:03 · 5 answers · asked by Stareyes 5 in Psychology