How long has the Ashley Treatment been around?
· Ashley is now 15 years old, and is experiencing life with the cognitive resources typically available to a 3-6 month old child (Diekema, 2010). Shortly after her …
What is Ashley's age now?
· December 15, 2015. December 15, 2015. maayans1 Bioethics, Disability, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Maayan Sudai, Pediatrics, Personhood. Ashley is young woman who was born in 1997 with a severe mental and physical disability that prevented her from ever eating, walking or talking by herself.
How did Ashley's Treatment change her personality?
· Ashley Addiction Treatment founders Father Joseph C. Martin and Mae Ashley Abraham accidentally met at one of Father ... Now known as Ashley Addiction Treatment, a nonprofit, accredited substance use disorder treatment center with four locations, Mae and Father Martin’s legacy has helped more than 50,000 patients and 100,000 family members ...
Is the Ashley Treatment in her best interest?
· Her name is Ashley and she's 9 years old. But she has the mental and physical abilities of a 3-month-old, and will for the rest of her life.
What is Ashley X's condition?
Consultation with all relevant specialties could identify no specific cause for her condition, resulting in a diagnosis of “static encephalopathy ...
How tall is Ashley?
Over a period of the ensuing 3 years, Ashley received high doses of estrogen, a growth attenuation treatment that has resulted in her remaining relatively small in stature, likely to never be larger that 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m) tall, and weighing about 65 or 70 pounds (29–32 kg). Ashley also underwent a hysterectomy and breast bud removal ...
Why has the controversy not gone away?
One reason the controversy has not gone away is that the Treatment has not gone away; it is being administered in additional cases (at least 12 worldwide), and perhaps thousands of families around the world are exploring it.
Is Ashley the same as most people?
Dr. Asch and Dr. Anna Stubblefield have written that “Ashley is the same as most people. She is the same in deserving to be accepted by and respected by and loved by her family for who she is and what she will become, with no modification required” (Asch). I think that is exactly (or at least mostly) right as well.
Is the Ashley treatment controversial?
The Ashley Treatment has been, and remains, controversial. It has been over 5 years since the Ashley Treatment was first described in a medical journal, but it remains a lively topic, for several reasons.
Is helping Ashley be a small woman a failure?
If so, helping Ashley be a small woman is not a failure of love and acceptance, but an act OF love and acceptance. In defending the availability of the Ashley Treatment, my intention is to privilege, not “reason”, but “feeling”, as a way of being in the world.
Is Ashley's brain a developmental deficit?
With Ashley, of course, matters are not as simple. A diagnosis of “static encephalopathy with marked global developmental deficits of unknown etiology” is an admission that there is a lot here that medicine does not know. No one has any published explanation that I have been able to find concerning what sort of massive insult Ashley's brain received, or when, exactly, it occurred. Some commentators have been, and are, suspicious of this diagnosis, and the prognosis accompanying it. Disability activist Anne McDonald remarked that in accepting the conclusion that Ashley will not significantly develop cognitively, ethicist Peter Singer ''has accepted the doctors' eyeball assessment of Ashley without asking the obvious questions. What was their assessment based on? Has Ashley ever been offered a way of showing that she knows more than a 3-month-old baby?” (McDonald 2007).
How long has Ashley Addiction Treatment been around?
For more than 38 years, Ashley Addiction Treatment has helped people find freedom from addiction with an empathetic approach to recovery based on its founders’ philosophies.
Who was Mae's father in Ashley Addiction?
The possible dream. In the years following, Mae and Father Martin became close friends. Father Martin eventually moved in with Mae and her husband and continued to give his talks. One day, when Mae and Father Martin were returning home from a speech, Mae planted the first roots of the future Ashley Addiction Treatment.
When did Father Martin's Ashley open?
On January 17, 1983, Father Martin’s Ashley opened its doors — with no fanfare — to five patients and six hand-picked staff members.
Is Ashley Addiction Treatment a nonprofit?
Within two years of opening, Forbes Magazine ranked Ashley as one of the country’s top 10 facilities. Now known as A shley Addiction Treatment, a nonprofit, accredited substance use disorder treatment center with four locations, Mae and Father Martin’s legacy has helped more than 50,000 patients and 100,000 family members heal their minds, bodies, and spirits. The driving principle — everything for recovery — reinforces Ashley’s timeless mission to treat each person with dignity and respect because everyone deserves a chance to live a happy and healthy life.
Why is Ashley treated?
Proponents of the Ashley Treatment, and in particular Ashley’s parents, argue that this treatment is in Ashley’s best interest because it will allow her to have a better quality of life and will assist them as caregivers in being able to give her the best possible care.
Why is Ashley treatment important?
First, being a smaller child it will be easier for her caregivers to lift her and care for her general hygiene, which should reduce the risk of bedsores, pneumonia and bladder infection that plague patients like Ashley.
What are the principles of Ashley treatment?
To determine if the Ashley Treatment is ethical, the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice will be applied to this treatment and its consequences. Respect for Persons.
Why did Ashley get her uterus removed?
The removal of Ashley’s uterus raises real ethical concerns about sterilization. Directly sterilizing Ashley by removing her uterus because she does not need it can have wide-ranging consequences . The United States has a history of not always protecting the rights of the most vulnerable.
What is the issue of justice in the Ashley treatment?
Third, the issue of justice pertains to the Ashley Treatment specifically in regards to distributive justice, which concerns the fair and equitable allocation of medical resources. The main issue here is research priorities. Should funds be used to support this experimental treatment when the risks seem unreasonable and possibly harmful? The amount of money spent on these surgeries and treatment could certainly be invested in new ways to help severely disabled children and their families live a better quality of life. This would help to minimize the risks and maximize the benefits, not only for the disabled person, but also for families and society as a whole. Also, if the Ashley Treatment becomes a part of standard medical practice, it could affect insurance coverage and rates. Since all Americans have an interest in access to affordable insurance, we should be very concerned about the relative value of this treatment as a matter of distributive justice. If this treatment is designed to prevent out-of-home placement, then one might think a cost-benefit analysis should be initiated to determine whether medication and surgery or more funds for home-based services would be more equitable and just5. In general, pharmacological remedies do not usually trump adequate social support. As a matter of social justice, “when the parents’ resources are limited, the state, with its greater resources, should not resort to biological modification, when the patient’s quality of life can be preserved through social services”26. Who should receive medical resources and whether the Ashley Treatment is a fair and equitable allocation of medical resources is an important ethical issue. Medical professionals have an ethical obligation to use available resources fairly and to distribute them fairly and equitably. Failure to do so violates the principle of justice.
Why did they remove Ashley's uterus?
However, besides the high-dose estrogen treatment, physicians removed Ashley’s uterus, to prevent potential discomfort from menstrual cramps and pregnancy in the event of rape, and removed her breast buds because of a family history of cancer and fibrocystic disease . Ashley also had an appendectomy for preventative reasons4.
Why is Ashley's surgery unnecessary?
Opponents argue that the treatment and surgery are nonbeneficial because Ashley is not suffering, the treatment is untested and has potential adverse effects, and the surgery is unnecessary because there are viable options. Physicians are ethically bound to do no harm to a patient.
What is Ashley treatment?
EP: It has been five years since you went public with what you called the "Ashley treatment", the use of medical procedures to attenuate your daughter's growth and inhibit the onset of puberty. The treatment was, unsurprisingly, massively controversial.
When did the Ashley treatment become public?
EP: Let's get back to your family's experience with the Ashley treatment. When it first became public in 2007 you must have been aware that it would be controversial, but were you prepared for just how explosive it was?
Why did Ashley get her puberty?
In girls, puberty is caused by a surge of estrogen; the Ashley treatment added estrogen so that Ashley's growth would conclude at an earlier age and a smaller size. Today at 14, Ashley is still an infant cognitively, as she was at birth and five years ago.
How tall is Ashley's sister?
As a contrast, Ashley's 12-year-old sister is 66in (168cm) tall and 120 lbs (55kg) and still growing. Ashley's health is also stable, she is on a single prescription drug for reflux.
What was the objective of the Ashley treatment?
EP: In 2007, you said that the objective of the Ashley treatment, which you devised together with specialist doctors from Seattle's children's hospital, was to improve Ashley's own quality of life, with no consideration paid to your own needs as her parents caring for her. You believed that by attenuating her growth, avoiding the onset of puberty and removing her breast buds she would be physically more comfortable.
How much did Ashley's surgery cost?
There are cases were families had to go to other countries and to other states. Ashley's treatment cost under $40k, which was mostly due to the surgery and was fully covered by our insurance. As far as we know the other treatments are covered by insurance as well.
What was Ashley's goal?
The aim of it all, Ashley's parents insisted, was to give their daughter the best life possible despite a condition from birth which left her unable to talk or walk, and with the cognitive ability of an infant. News broke around the world of the pioneering treatment in January 2007, igniting a global debate about the acceptable limits of medical intervention for the most severely disabled children.