A careful decision to comfort an angel

There is something unsavory about watching Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn debate the case of Ashley the Pillow Angel on their TV shows.

The severely disabled girl, who lives in the Seattle area, is the topic of sound-bite chatter because of a carefully vetted decision her family made to keep her from growing to adult size. The case was described in the October issue of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine by Drs. Daniel F. Gunther and Douglas S. Diekema. Doctors worked with the family on what has been dubbed the "Ashley treatment." In her case, she received high doses of estrogen to halt her growth, a hysterectomy and removal of her breast buds. The 9-year-old will likely stay at her current size of4-foot-5 and 75 pounds.

Public revelations about the case have brought harsh criticism of the family, the medical professionals and Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center.

While some critics are disability advocates, many don't have an inkling about the unique and confounding challenges that face a family striving to provide a loving, stimulating social life for a truly helpless but growing child. Without knowing the facts, they suggest the parents are selfishly acting for their convenience. Others are questioning the ethics of the medical professionals involved.

They shouldn't. The family made this decision with doctors, who together made the case before Children's 40-member ethics committee that this was in Ashley's best interest.

This treatment should be applied carefully on a case-by-case basis — as it was in Ashley's case.

This is a family that has embraced the unique blessing of this joyful child, whom they've dubbed a "pillow angel" because she can't move about herself, not even to change positions. She has the mental capacity of an infant and her parents are not sure she recognizes them.

Her parents worry about her future, about bed sores as she grows, menstrual discomfort, breast cancer that runs in the family, the potential for sexual abuse by ill-intentioned caregivers. They want to care for her, for her to participate fully in family life, to go for spur-of-the-moment outings, to be scooped up and cuddled in their arms.

Her parents want the best life Ashley can have — and they know best. (Read the family's story at http://ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com/blog/)