Once again, severely handicapped little kids remain mercifully naturally small and about their only hope for optimum survival is that experiments not take place. For sometimes well meant intentions, if misguided, parents will want to see their child not growing scoliotic with time, and will want the child to look more normal even if the procedures are high risk. They may imagine their children growing normally into adulthood with all the dangers, yet the child's own development is self-limiting. Range of motion exercises can make limbs more flexible, but lack of muscle control leads to atrophy and to smaller muscles overall. Parents can look nearly anywhere for examples, unless they blind their reason with false hopes and fantasy.
I applaud this writer's efforts to find a contrast to the cruelty visited on so many children, but I cannot find a worthy motive for Ashley's parents to opt out and jeopardize this precious life with such experiments.
I can only suppose this writer imagines such a child growing normally into adulthood when in reality it just doesn't happen.
America is plagued by irresponsible adults who seem either incapable or unwilling to care for their children. Not a day passes without a story of a young girl being molested by a family member, or an infant "forgotten" and left in the car on a hot sunny day.
On the last day of 2006, a 3-year-old boy was found wandering along I-465 in Indianapolis wearing only a diaper and t-shirt. His mother was asleep in their squalid apartment. When police reached the boy’s home, his mother was still asleep, and his sister, also quite young, was eating cold spaghetti off the floor.
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With all the abuse and neglect of children in this country, it is a rare pleasure to hear of someone who truly goes above and beyond the call to care for a child. Such is the case of "Ashley X" (her parents are attempting to remain anonymous).
Ashley was born with static encephalopathy, and has no use of her arms and legs. She can't hold her head up on her own. She cannot eat normally and requires a feeding tube. Ashley can't even roll over in bed by herself. And Ashley's mind has not and will never develop beyond that of a newborn. She will remain in a newborn's tiny world all of her life.
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In a world where monsters like Michael Schiavo are free to murder for convenience, where child abuse and neglect are rampant and abortion is considered a viable option to condom use, these loving people have sought the higher ground. Mr. and Mrs. X, I salute you.
Meanwhile, I am not saluting Mr. and Mrs. X...
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