Has anyone heard about ashley x, what was the cause of her condition?

Answer 1

Here you go:

Ashley "X" is a severely disabled nine year old girl who suffers from static encephalopathy, a rare brain disease from which she is not expected to improve. She is completely immobile, can not speak and has to be fed through a tube. Because Ashley stays wherever her parents place her they call her their "Pillow Angel".


When Ashley showed early signs of puberty at six, her parents consulted a board of ethics at Seattle Children's Hospital for their approval to begin a high-dose estrogen treatment to stall her growth. This unprecedented type of growth attenuation treatment would keep Ashley at her present size of less than 5 feet and 75 pounds and make it easier for her parents to carry her around and care for her. A hysterectomy, appendix and breast bud removal procedures were also performed in order to avoid the potential infections and discomforts associated with a menstrual cycle and extra body mass for a person in Ashley's condition.


The natural aversion most people feel towards what was done to Ashley stems from the popularization of the "designer baby" trend - where parents select specific pre-natal genetic information to procure the offspring of their dreams - and fears that this practice may soon become the accepted norm for the future of childbearing.


In Ashley's case - one who is already outside of the womb - it is more a case of how the parents can engineer her development to better manage her care as a disabled adult. Thus they have unwittingly been thrust into a debate which could have long lasting repercussions for the way our society deals with those who have to face the unenviable task of caring for a severely disabled family member.


The perennial question asked by ethicists in such cases is: at which point do these highly invasive therapies become normative and only done for the convenience of one party and at the expense of another? According to the medical doctor who was working with Ashley's parents, the treatments were not significantly harmful and the benefits would outweigh any future negative side effects both for Ashley and her parents, who in his estimation were motivated only by love for their daughter.


Adding to the amalgam of thorny questions already inherent in what is at heart an ethical debate, Daniel Gunther - the pediatric endocrinologist who has overseen Ashley's treatment - remarked that the ensuing debate about Ashley's treatment reminded him of a quote from Isaac Asimov:

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."
Quoting Isaac Asimov to defend the legitimacy of a decision to keep someone at her present body size for the rest of her life was probably not the most judicious course of action.

Answer 2

I don't know much about the poor child other than she is a "little girl" that was never allowed to grow up due to her parents and physical difficulties.

Her parents had her uterus and breast bud surgically removed. They said at least in part, it was because the feared their daughter would be sexually assaulted in the future.

Also part of her condition is due to her having static encephalopathy....a brain impairment that effected her physical development. Apparently she is just 4 foot 5 inches tall and weighs just 75 pounds.

Sorry but that's all I call recall from memory. It's been a while since I heard the story on the news.