OK, so my friend Julie and I were actually watching Nancy Grace on CNN last night and the first topic was about "Ashley X," the 9-year-old girl whose parents decided to remove her breat tissue and give her a hysterectomy in order to stunt her growth and make her easier to take care of as she gets older. I guess the girl allegedly has the mental capacity of a 3-month-old, can't talk, walk, roll over, or even old her head up.
I guess one of the issues that the dad said would be avoided by giving her a mastectomy was sexual abuse by outside caregivers. Now come on. Really? Because if that's the case then why don't we all just get them taken off so no one is ever molested or abused? That's a ridiculous argument.
I still support the parents in their decision, however, because they are the ones who are taking care of this girl. They're obviously not mistreating her or neglecting her. In this case where a mature woman could not mentally or physically make her own decisions regarding her body, who else is left to make those decisions? The caregivers. People do it all the time, just not to this extreme. Stunting her growth and giving her these operations does make it easier on the parents to carry her and strap her into the little apparatus they use to mobilize her. Does it really harm Ashley at all? Not really. Is it kind of morally... weird? Yeah.
A lady called in and said that she has a 13-year-old daughter with the same condition and that she supports the parents. Reasons like mentrual cramps suck and are extremely painful for her daughter, being able to move her daughter and interact with her and stuff were why the woman said she agreed with the parents. There you go. Basically the only ones on the show who decried the parents for what they did were Nancy and some hippy douche who's never even met these people and who thought he knew how to care for Ashley better than her own parents. Everyone else was pretty much in agreement that the procedures were for the best and gave Ashley a chance at a better way of life because it makes the caring for her easier. So unless Nancy or the hippy douche feels like paying for in-home 24-hour nursing, then they should just accept the parents' decisions.
I guess that's all I got for now.
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