Parents Stunt Disabled Daughter's Growth

The family of a 10-year-old girl use a highly controversial treatment known as growth attenuation in bid to make her life better.

05:51, UK, Wednesday 28 October 2015







Video: Parent's Stunt Daughter's Growth

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The parents of a severely disabled girl have taken the radical step to stop their daughter growing in an attempt to improve her life.
As well as giving their child hormones to limit her size, Jenn and Mark Hooper also had doctors remove Charley's womb to spare her the pain of having periods.
The New Zealand couple are among a small, but increasing number of families around the world resorting to a highly controversial treatment known as growth attenuation, in bid to make the lives of their disabled children better.

Mrs Hooper said no choices not already taken from Charley were removed
Opponents argue stunting and sterilising the disabled amounts to a violation of human rights.
But parents like the Hoopers insist it helps their children retain their quality of life.
Charley cannot speak or walk, has no control of her limbs and is virtually blind, unable to detect anything beyond light or dark.
She was left irreversibly brain damaged after being deprived of enough oxygen at birth, and was later diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy.
Her parents have to try and interpret what she feels by the pitch and volume of her moans, and whether her face is relaxed or contorted in muscle spasms.
As she grew bigger her parents were concerned she would eventually become too big to take her anywhere, with the prospect of her having to be moved using hoists for the rest of her life or being trapped in bed.

Charley will not get any bigger after the hormone treatment
Initially blocked by the local ethics board, they eventually got permission but only by travelling abroad to South Korea to start the hormone treatment.
Now aged 10, Charley is around 4ft 3in tall and weighs less than four stone, and will remain so for the rest of her life.
She is able to join her family on shopping trips and holidays to Bali.
Her parents are also able to comfort her by cuddling her in their laps and carrying her in their arms, which they say would not be possible if she was bigger.

Mrs Hooper said: "We haven't stopped her doing anything.

"Growing would have stopped her doing things.

"We didn't take away any choices that weren't already taken from her."
But many doctors refuse to prescribe the treatment, which has also given rise to public unease.

from http://news.sky.com/story/1577336/parents-stunt-disabled-daughters-growth



Personally I think they do right

quote ""We didn't take away any choices that weren't already taken from her.""

what they have done can ONLY improved the quality of whatever life she has left... So sad .

Looks like she hasn't much quality of life .

true, but "the best it can be" under the circumstances....

this is such a difficult subject but if the quality of life is gone why keep them to continue to suffer..

Right I gotta ask you this HF and VoD

1) where is "god" in all this
2) as regards your comment HF...what about "thou shalt NOT kill"
3) if you answer is "not doing anything " is not wrong even though she would certainly die, what about the "sin of omission" (which is actually catered for and given existance to  in real life in the laws on negligence..i.e negligent man slaughter)

Admin wrote:Right I gotta ask you this HF and VoD

1) where is "god" in all this
2) as regards your comment HF...what about "thou shalt NOT kill"
3) if you answer is "not doing anything " is not wrong even though she would certainly die, what about the "sin of omission" (which is actually catered for and given existance to  in real life in the laws on negligence..i.e negligent man slaughter)

I have no idea where God is in this, Not everyone who gets prayed for gets healed, not everyone lives a perfect and healthy life...
God is interested in our eternity not so much the time we spend on here, if this child or any other child gets to spend eternity with God that's the best they can have..

WE have to remember we have made a mess of our planet, we have made a mess of our foods, chemicals, drugs, playing God with cloning and fertility....

heavenlyfather wrote:

Admin wrote:Right I gotta ask you this HF and VoD

1) where is "god" in all this
2) as regards your comment HF...what about "thou shalt NOT kill"
3) if you answer is "not doing anything " is not wrong even though she would certainly die, what about the "sin of omission" (which is actually catered for and given existance to  in real life in the laws on negligence..i.e negligent man slaughter)

I have no idea where God is in this, Not everyone who gets prayed for gets healed, not everyone lives a perfect and healthy life...
God is interested in our eternity not so much the time we spend on here, if this child or any other child gets to spend eternity with God that's the best they can have..

WE have to remember we have made a mess of our planet, we have made a mess of our foods, chemicals, drugs, playing God with cloning and fertility....

There is some truth in what you say here HF...and of course in "olden days" a child born like this WOULD have died, no doubt about it...(and harsh though it seems that would probably have been for the best)

Admin wrote:

heavenlyfather wrote:

I have no idea where God is in this, Not everyone who gets prayed for gets healed, not everyone lives a perfect and healthy life...
God is interested in our eternity not so much the time we spend on here, if this child or any other child gets to spend eternity with God that's the best they can have..

WE have to remember we have made a mess of our planet, we have made a mess of our foods, chemicals, drugs, playing God with cloning and fertility....

There is some truth in what you say here HF...and of course in "olden days" a child born like this WOULD have died, no doubt about it...(and harsh though it seems that would probably have been for the best)

I agree it may well have been for the best, I also agree that some years back the baby would have probably been allowed to die and the parents told that it was not strong enough to make it..