It is really, really bad (and inhumane) for treatment to be given to change a child’s (or any person’s) body and mind in order to make their carers and parents lives easier.
Ashley X - A People First Press Release
We believe Ashley’s parents have not acted in Ashley’s best interest but their own. Ashley is a human being with human rights but her parents are keeping her like a pet. But we do believe that it is not all the fault of the parents.
Society disables people by not meeting their needs and if Ashley and her parent’s needs were being met, Ashley would be able to participate in everyday life whatever her size as many adult disabled people I know and have worked alongside with similar impairments do. Her parents do not seem to have had support to come to terms with their daughter's disability. She is a human with human rights - taking away her fundamental right to grow up is a complete abuse of those rights.
Society must give disabled people the same chances as other people and not treat them in a way that you would not treat another human being - otherwise it threatens the humanity of all of us. Governments have the resources to meet the needs of disabled people if only those resources were better spent.
The Ashley X Case
The Ashley X case is a very big story about a girl with learning and physical difficulties. Ashley is a girl who was said to learn very slowly and that she would be too big and heavy to care for by her mum and dad because she could not walk. Ashley’s mum and dad said they would find it very hard to look after her as they will not be able to lift her as she grows up and gets bigger and heavier.
Mum and dad asked the doctors to give Ashley treatment to stop her from growing up from a girl into a woman. The doctors gave Ashley treatment to do the following:
- Stop her from growing taller so that she will always stay as small as a child.
- Take away her ability to grow breasts which women have.
- To take away her uterus so that she cannot have children if she choose to.
- To take out her appendix which does not have any job to do.
The parents said that making their child Ashley lighter would mean they could care for her better and take her out more on family outings.
I think this a very, very, very big abuse of Ashley’s human rights for the following reasons:
- She has the right to grow up into an adult like any other child would have done.
- She has the right to grow up into a woman where growing breasts and having a uterus is what girls have.
- She has the right to have a body which will allow her to have babies if that is what she wants.
I think it is wrong that healthcare treatment is given to make Ashley’s parents lives easier. This is wrong because we have hoists, wheelchairs, human beings and lifts which would help Ashley’s parents to care for her.
It is really, really bad (and inhumane) for treatment to be given to change a child’s (or any person’s) body and mind in order to make their carers and parents lives easier.
Some of you may be thinking that this does not happen very often because we do not hear about doctors taking body parts out of a disabled person simply to benefit the carers. The bad news is that treatment is being used more often than we think to make other peoples lives easier. We do not need to see further than what happened in just 2006 where doctors in a Cornwall home were giving people with learning difficulties drugs in order to shut them up and stop them from moving around. People with learning difficulties were taking drugs simply to make the staff’s jobs easier to do. If people with learning difficulties were being put to sleep by drugs staff did not have to listen to them or meet their needs.
Children with learning difficulties who act out (display challenging behaviour) are often given drugs to make them quieter for their teachers, carers and parents. Children on drugs sometimes find it hard to learn or do new things because the drugs change the way their minds works. Using drugs stops carers and parents taking the time to see why their child is acting out and looking for new ways of listening.
Some disabled children are forced to go under the knife (have operations) many times in order to allow them to walk a very short way which can also be very painful. Parents think that walking is important how ever difficult the child may think it is.
Some disabled people with Downs Syndrome have had their faces changed so that they look more like a non-disabled person. This is to make it easier for carers and parents who do not want other people to stare at them or think their child may have learning difficulties.
So, like with Ashley X, there are many people with learning difficulties today who are having their bodies and minds changed for the benefit of parents, carers and even staff!
Doctors would not tell parents to stop their non-disabled child from growing up into a teenager by giving them treatment because they may be hard to handle, going out without permission or becoming very angry. Doctors would not agree for non-disabled children’s bodies including their minds to be changed so why should it be any different for disabled people with learning difficulties?
People First and other organisations including the United Kingdom’s Disabled Peoples Council have spoken out against Ashley X’s very bad (abusive and inhumane) treatment.
I am sure Andrew Lee from People First will be happy to talk with you about Ashley X’s treatment and what People First have said.
Article by Simone Aspis
