The “Ashley Treatment”

An interesting article sent to me by my sister. This little girl, Ashley has some type of unexplained brain anomaly. Her brain quit developing at the age of three months, although she was normal at birth. She can’t sit up, roll over, stand, or walk. She is aware and does react. Her parents had her undergo some surgical procedures to basically prevent puberty and to have her body remain childsize both for her comfort and for ease or caregiving. I’m not sure what I think about it although the comments at the end of the article make a good case for the ethics of “The Ashley Treatment.”

The “Ashley Treatment”: “In early 2004 when Ashley was six and a half years old, we observed signs of early puberty. In a related conversation with Ashley’s doctor, Ashley’s Mom came upon the idea of accelerating her already precocious puberty to minimize her adult height and weight. We scheduled time with Dr. Daniel F. Gunther, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in Endocrinology at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital, and discussed our options. We learned that attenuating growth is feasible through high-dose estrogen therapy. This treatment was performed on teenage girls starting in the 60’s and 70’s, when it wasn’t desirable for girls to be tall, with no negative or long-term side effects.
The fact that there is experience with administering high-dose estrogen to limit height in teen-age girls gave us the peace of mind that it was safe—no surprise side effects. Furthermore, people found justification in applying this treatment for cosmetic reasons while we were seeking a much more important purpose, as will be detailed below.
In addition to height and weight issues, we had concerns about Ashley’s menstrual cycle and its associated cramps and discomfort. We also had concerns about Ashley’s breasts developing and becoming a source of discomfort in her lying down position and while strapped across the chest area in her wheelchair, particularly since there is a family history of large breasts and other related issues that we discuss below. The estrogen treatment would hasten both the onset of the menstrual cycle and breast growth. Bleeding during the treatment would likely be very difficult to control.
It was obvious to us that we could significantly elevate Ashley’s adult quality of life by pursuing the following three goals: See link above.