tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post8806689176357968375..comments2024-03-16T16:44:18.220-07:00Comments on Bad Cripple: Conference Paper on the Ashley Treatmentwilliam Peacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00223601480542461802noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-76880017663494459812010-08-20T05:17:56.127-07:002010-08-20T05:17:56.127-07:00Thank you William. I think it's a pernicious ...Thank you William. I think it's a pernicious form of discrimination that will be hard to rid ourselves of. <br /><br />But thought I would share some hope - hope for the new generation. My teenage daughter came in the other day and made a light-hearted comment about how her brother was too big. I took a deep breath - I said, well, we just want to be careful about how we think about that. There is a movement among some doctors and parents to keep disabled children small through surgeries and drugs.<br /><br />Her four word response sums it all up. "Eww. Yuck. Scratch that." Here at our house, we have all worked with our thinking so that we don't let ourselves complain ever about growth. Only about the lack of services and equipment to help. <br /> <br />I think like most discrimination, it's easy for young people to see this is wrong. They should be our guide.MamaBearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009193759804679494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-11426895238793371322010-05-13T10:47:33.174-07:002010-05-13T10:47:33.174-07:00MammaBear, I truly do not understand why people wi...MammaBear, I truly do not understand why people with physical and cognitive disabilities face such overwhelming discrimination. I do not understand how the doctors in Seattle fail to see why the so called Ashley Treatment is ethically objectionable. I do not understand why the parents continue to push so hard for this "treatment" and present dubious evidence to support it. The entire subject is perplexing and reveals a deep prejudice against people with disabilities exists.william Peacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00223601480542461802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-48957800796466290962010-05-11T17:18:57.412-07:002010-05-11T17:18:57.412-07:00Thank you for taking a stand. My son has cerebra...Thank you for taking a stand. My son has cerebral palsy, and a severe movement disorder. He's incapable of staying on a pillow. Does that make him a pillow devil? or a non-pillow angel? Can't Ashley just be a person? He is now big and healthy - and we fought for that. The same team in Seattle refused to help us when he was too small and weak, with a known growth hormone deficiency, saying they would have treated "normals". His growth is a challenge to society, to be sure. That he dares to be healthy and strong is a challenge. We will adapt. He has a right to his sexuality and all human rights (like freedom from unnecessary untested procedures that benefit others more than himself) - regardless of his cognitive or physical ability. The Ashley treatment upsets me, as do her parents' continual claims that they receive mostly positive comments, and their refusal to acknowledge the feelings of the rest of the disability community. But the most outrageous evidence of far-fetched justification for me was their one time claim that this procedure would protect her from predators - like predators only prey on those with developed bodies? In what fantasy world? Oh...in the Pillow Angels proponents' fantasy world....constructed to support their own beliefs.MamaBearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009193759804679494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-52438239994415559172010-04-26T15:00:19.063-07:002010-04-26T15:00:19.063-07:00Thank you for taking a bold stand on this issue! I...Thank you for taking a bold stand on this issue! I find the mutilation of a child for the purpose of 'staff convenience' appalling. I agree that this is only acceptable to practitioners because they believe that her humanity was somehow canceled out by her 'severity.' <br /><br />Best of luck--hope you leave having enlightened many (and, as you say, in one piece!)Terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14802459265546733391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-31262013553771177512010-04-26T14:31:15.217-07:002010-04-26T14:31:15.217-07:00Bill, I totally agree with you on the similarities...Bill, I totally agree with you on the similarities between Buck v. Bell and the Ashley Treatment, but here is one area where they are not similar. Carrie Buck later got freed from the institution where she was remanded and married. She is also noted to be of "normal intelligence" as well as it being emphasized that her foster parents lying about her being promiscuous, the reason she was institutionalized in the first place, when she was raped by a relative of theirs and they put her away to hide that fact. This is the main reason why the Buck v. Bell case is criticized on most mainstream websites I have seen: because Carrie Buck is seen as being "not really disabled." In the case of Ashley X, she does not appear to have this attribute. Therefore, the "Ashley Treatment" is seen as justifiable because Ashley X is seen as less deserving of human rights because she is seen mostly as "severely disabled." It's like in Sweeney Todd when Johanna's confinement in a mental institution is seen as cruel only because she's "sane as you or I" and no attention is paid to the other people who are being imprisoned in there because they're "lunatics."TheWiredOnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10603161451462354948noreply@blogger.com