Hello DSPs,
Have you heard about the “Ashley Case?” This link tells the story of a girl with significant disabilities. Her parents chose to stunt her growth and have other medical procedures performed to keep her reproductive organs from maturing. Their justification was that it would be easier for caregivers in the future to care for her. I do not want to pass judgment on this family, but rather am curious as to what other professionals in the field have to say. Do you think as a society we should be able to perform these types of medical procedures on people with disabilities to make it easier to care for them? Do you think it will it make it easier to care for Ashley? As a direct support professional who believes in justice as an ethic (NADSP Code of Ethics) and advocates for the person you support, how do you feel about this from an ethical perspective? What do you think it says about the how the direct support profession is viewed by others? Do you think if the parents had a good understanding of service options for Ashley that they would still choose to do this? Or do you think it is because of their understanding of the service options that they chose to do this?
I for one do not believe that “limited service options” justifies this action. What it does suggest is that parents are not comfortable with the service options they have to care for their child. How about advocating for better services for all people with disabilities – by promoting the direct support workforce? Lobbying for increased funding? Other thoughts?
3 comments:
I am not an advocate of this type of "care" but can understand the motives behind what the parents chose to do. I do not believe they are monsters. I believe they acted out of love. On the other hand having worked in direct care and taken care of many adults with very severe physical disabilities there are other options they should have explored. I personally advocate for better services with my legislators every chance I get.
This is mutilation plain and simple! This was not done to benefit Ashley. This was done to benefit the parents. The term they coined, "pillow angel"proves my point. Lets just keep her small and cute and maybe people will pity us. I hope other parents think long and hard before they mutilate their children in this way!
Coming from my situation, I see many points of view with regards to this. Yes this is mutilation. I think that we need to teach safe sex practices and change our voice as people as a whole. I mean, when I grew up all I wanted to do is become a mother and get married. And honestly, how many of our consumers have the same dream. Mine quickly went away as I got older. But, most of our Consumers have kept that dream as this is what they learned when they were children. Competence and ability to care should be a big determining fact here. We need to be strog advocates of safe sex and birth control not preforming medical procedures to stunt growth, keep reproductive organs from maturing. We need to be teaching and advocating for wise decision making.
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