Doctors refuse to perform hysterectomy on disabled girl

DOCTORS have refused to carry out a hysterectomy on a 15-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, following an ethical row sparked by her mother’s request to have her daughter’s womb removed.

The following post sums up very well what anti-disability rights views look like:

I find the parallel between the two situations [pro-life stances and stances against the operations on Ashley X and Katie Thorpe] significant in the similarity of the “pro-disabled” side with proponents of the pro-life philosophy: There is very little distinction drawn ( Read more... )

The comments to this post on Feministe are... uh... revealing.

I may well bow out soon. Being the white knight springing up at Daisy's summons was kind of cool, but, well, it's been a hell of a long time since I saw "crippled" used in that slurry kind of way last and I feel like someone just cracked me across the jaw.

from everyone's favorite LJ community (why'd I look):

I'm in women's health, and I've had several patients with CP or other severe mental retardation. And yes, menstruation can be a traumatic experience for such girls. The patients I've had have been placed on Depo-Provera (or, in rarer circumstances, other forms of hormonal BC) to inhibit ( Read more... )

actually I think it's #3. there was also a kid in Turkey, if I recall right, whose parents wanted this.  (ETA: Yep.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/06/nashley06.xml

Copying the whole thing because it's important.

And yes, all they're mentioning IS the same thing I've got.  And in this case they don't even mention any ( Read more... )

Another Story From A "Pillow Angel" (paragraph breaks and bolding inserted by me)

I did live the experience. I lived it not as a parent or caregiver but as a bed-ridden growth-attenuated child. My life story is the reverse of Ashley's. Like Ashley, I, too, have a static encephalopathy. Mine was caused by brain damage at the time of my breech birth. ( Read more... )

Just in case anyone didn't yet realize what disturbing precedent the Ashley X case sets:

Yes, we do need to push, at every opportunity, for more and better in-home supports for people with disabilities of all ages.

But using this case to justify our position puts us on rather shaky ground.

One reason is that the same young girl can be -- and is being ( Read more... )

I can't believe that after days and days of waving my arms about wildly and insisting that this is important, I'm still hearing comments like Roy's here (toward the bottom).

Part of me wants to say more, but part of me is just done with this whole thing. I can't understand why people treat surgery as if it's no big deal, even if surgery doesn't ( Read more... )

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.

I truly hope this is a hoax. If it isn't... this is the sort of shit liberation movements should be fighting.