Word: ashley
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...only “got through” in the second half, but broke through Dartmouth’s defense, matching the Big Green’s own All-Ivy candidate, Ashley Taylor, down the stretch. It was hard to say which of Hallion’s backbreaking plays stood tallest: her jumper from the free-throw line as the shot clock expired, giving Harvard a one-point lead with 4:45 left? Her steal and lay-up at 1:37, which she followed with another jumper, pushing the Crimson’s lead to five with just more than...
...doctors who agreed to an experimental treatment for a severely disabled girl thought there were clear medical benefits to keeping her small. Autopsy the doctors' argument, and you find that they concluded they could remove Ashley's uterus and breast buds because she'd be better off without them; they could keep her short because, since she'll never have a job or a romance, she'd not suffer the social consequences of smallness. "To those who say she has a right to develop and grow," argues Dr. Daniel Gunther, "Ashley has no concept of these things...
...Looking back on the debate within the Seattle Children's Hospital ethics committee, the doctors admit that there was an instinctive, emotional ingredient in the decision to proceed with hormone treatments and surgery. "I think in the end it was the obvious bond and love that exists between Ashley and her parents," Gunther says, "that convinced them this was the right thing...
...Arlene Mayerson, a leading expert in disability rights law, who like many critics feels intense sympathy for these parents. "Many things that were done under a theory of benevolence were later seen as wrongheaded violations of human rights. " Medicine's role is to relieve pain and improve function, but Ashley was not sick, and the treatment was untested; do we really want to start bending the rules in the case of the disabled just for the promise of some benefit in the future, advocates ask? That's not healing, it's gambling...
...Ashley may be an extreme case; but she is a terrifying precedent. Critics note that for brain-damaged children, development can come very, very slowly - so deciding when she's only six to change a child's body irreversibly can amount to a medical form of identity theft. Frequent touch is indeed important; but is it really so much harder to hug someone who is 5'6," or bring her to the table at dinnertime? Turning people into permanent children denies them whatever subtle therapeutic benefit comes from being seen as adults. "I know they love their daughter," says Julia...