This Madness Must Stop

First Ashley X., then Katie Thorpe, and now Olivia. This madness MUST stop! The following article appeared on the LiverpoolECho site in the UK. After reading the article, I suggest you visit the blog of Benefit Scrounging Scum - she has an excellent analysis of these issues.

Give my child a hysterectomy
Oct 9 2007 by Vicky Anderson

A LIVERPOOL mother has approached Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to see if they will perform an operation to stop her disabled nine-year-old daughter going through puberty.

Kim Walker’s request on behalf of her daughter, Olivia, who is mentally and physically disabled, echoes that of a similar case in Essex which is currently being legally assessed.

Mrs Walker, from Halewood, has contacted Alder Hey to assess the family’s options. Olivia cannot walk, talk or otherwise communicate, and has epilepsy and requires 24-hour care.

The options being assessed for Olivia include contraceptive implants, which her mother has ruled out, and a full or partial hysterectomy. Mrs Walker said: “I was thinking more of the procedure where they leave the ovaries in, but she’ll still have to go through some sort of hormonal change, so it’s like Catch 22, so I’m still thinking about it.”

The family have faced criticism from disability rights groups for contemplating the decision, but Mrs Walker said: “These are people who probably haven’t got special needs children and don’t understand what the parents go through on a day-to-day basis. I can’t see why they should have an opinion on it unless they are going through the same thing.”

(Mrs. Walker - I DO have special needs children - daughters, and I most definitely do understand what parents go through on a day-to-day basis. I do have an opinion on this matter, and what you are trying to do is WRONG.)

An Alder Hey spokesperson said the hospital had no plans to undertake the procedure, adding such an operation would not be done until all aspects of the child’s well-being had been considered and all other options exhausted.

Olivia’s dilemma follows that of Katie Thorpe, 15, who has severe cerebral palsy and whose mother Alison this week said she wanted her to have an operation to prevent her suffering the discomfort of periods. But a charity for the disabled warned it could infringe the girl’s human rights and set a “disturbing” precedent.

Miss Thorpe, of Billericay, Essex, said: “I think there needs to be choice for individuals. For my daughter this, I think, is the right decision and one we have thought long and hard about.”

Both cases mirror that of Ashley X, the nine-year-old American girl with the mental age of a three-month-old baby, who had surgery to keep her as a child.

Her parents said keeping her “frozen” as a girl would give her a better life, but the move provoked worldwide controversy.