‘Pillow Angel’

U.S.A.

The decision by the parents of a severely brain-damaged child to surgically stunt her growth set off an ethical storm this week. The 9-year-old from Washington state, known only as Ashley, has the mental function of a 3-month-old and cannot hold up her head; doctors say her condition will never improve. Her parents, who have not been identified, ordered surgery in 2004 to remove her uterus and breast tissue, and halt her physical development. Their motive, they said, was to make her bedridden existence more comfortable and enable them to keep her at home. “We call her our Pillow Angel, since she is so sweet and stays right where we place her, usually on a pillow,” they wrote on a Web site about her case, which was the subject of a recent medical journal article. Some medical ethicists object to the parents’ making their daughter a “permanent child.” Others argue that her treatment is appropriate, but should not be “a widespread solution.”

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