Frozen in time

[TheShinje]

[QUOTE=Adahn][size=2][/size]
[size=2]A side effect of the treatment is that she has become the perfect sexual object for a pedophile's attentions. Oh please God, let me be horribly wrong.[/size]

[size=2]Excuse me while I go vomit (not really, but almost).[/size][/QUOTE]There would still be some trace of sexual assault if, God forbid, that ever happened. There are ways of finding out about these things other than an unexpected baby bump.

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]I?m back. In light of recent actions, I felt it would be prudent if I took a short hiatus and screwed my head back on straight, so that when I post I actually sound like a human being. I would like to start off by offering a formal apology, especially to [COLOR=DarkRed]Adahn[/COLOR].

I'm sorry.

Apparently, I failed to reread what I wrote with the right perspective in mind, and missed a couple of things that I either should have reworded or not said at all. I also apparently read some things that weren?t actually there. I will watch myself better from now on.

[center]-------------------[/center]

Thank you, [COLOR=DarkRed]indifference[/COLOR], for saying what I was attempting to get across with the disease bit. Sometimes, things just need to come out of someone else's mouth to be heard the right way. I've had that happen to me before, too.

And thank [I]you[/I], [COLOR=DarkRed]Adahn[/COLOR], for the brief genetics lesson. I understand more of what you're trying to say now. You're right, of course; I am weak in the genetics area. But I don?t believe you?ve entirely closed the issue for me just yet. I still have some items I?d like you to clear up, but not here; it?d be a waste of everyone else?s time.

As far as the whole breast bud thing goes, there is a major difference in the pains inherent there and the arm/leg pains you?re bringing up. First, when you?ve done the bumping and banging that you described, how many times did you cause serious injury or extremely prolonged pain to yourself? More importantly, how much force were you using when you [I]did[/I] break something?

I had a friend that broke his hand two years ago playing Ultimate Frisbee. His team had just scored and he called the launch; we gave it to him because he can throw stinkin? deep (aside from the fact that he called it. :) ) Unfortunately, another, shorter friend of mine happened to anticipate the launch and took off early. My first friend backhanded him across the forehead with the launch follow-through with enough force to knock the poor guy down and cause him to see stars. My launching friend only broke the metatarsals connected to his fourth and fifth fingers with the impact. He was out of his cast in a week, and out of the sling in three. (He liked the sling?said it got him more chicks.)

My point is this: nine year old Ashley can kick her legs and arms (how she can kick her arms is slightly beyond me?); I have yet to see a three month old child learning to move flail wildly about. (Ashley?s mental age is three months old). I do not believe, with her partially developed gross motor skills (what else, if she can move somewhat?), she can muster the force required to break a bone.

Her caregivers must be more cautious when handling her, since the side effects of a hysterectomy include a decrease in bone-density, but only serious mishandling (such as accidentally dropping her so that she falls down a flight of stairs, which is entirely possible) might give her the pain you so describe.

I realize the point behind your argument is of course not so much the pain itself as the definition of ?mutilation?. I also noticed this:

[QUOTE=Adahn] I truly hope someone can see what I'm getting at, as it would open the discussion to new and different directions that would be very interesting to explore (and all very related to what was done to the girl, and thus the topic in itself).

Please, someone humor me.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Adahn] If I weren't here to oppose those arguments, there would be no discussion at all. There would only be the observation that an operation was performed 2 and a half years ago, and nobody has anything wrong with it.

Booooring.[/QUOTE]

This implies to me that, personal stance aside, you?re only replying here to play Devil?s Advocate, aggravating the issue for the sheer sake of argument. Is this true? And if it is, then why?

(In retrospect, this is probably one of the things that was agitating me earlier.)

[quote name='Adahn'] Thirdly, she will not always have an underdeveloped vagina. I don't know exactly what effect the hormones will have on her, but won't the estrogen treatment speed up her vagina's maturation?[/quote]

It doesn?t matter. Incidentally, I looked up the hormone aspect, and it was specifically purposed for growth attenuation.

[quote name='Wikipedia][FONT=Arial'] Growth attenuation is a medical treatment which involves adminstering estrogen to cause closure of the bone plates, resulting in stunted growth. This is usually done on people who wish not to grow any taller beyond a desired height. At one time, growth attenuation was practiced on girls who were expected to reach an above average height, due to a cultural bias against tall women. More recently, growth attenuation was administered to a developmentally disabled girl as part of the controversial Ashley Treatment.[/FONT][/quote]

Also, I?ll link you to the [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterectomy#Potential_risks][U]the potential risks[/U][/URL] section of Wikipedia?s hysterectomy article. I think you?ll find it quite interesting.[/FONT]

[Adahn]

[size=2]Allamorph,[/size]
[size=2][/size]
[size=2]Your apology is accepted unconditionally. I took no offense at anything you said. Also, you're absolutely right about me replying only to be argumentative. I'm pretty mellow in real life, but I'm deeply confrontational. When I feel the need to verbally belt it out with someone, this is where I come to play. Most, if not all, of my arguments are weak. I support them through brute force. The way I usually write here is not to be persuasive. I always wondered why people would always argue with me, and now I know it's because that's all I wanted from them![/size]
[size=2][/size]
[size=2]As for this topic, if you want to trust the parents completely, then the operations performed on Ashley were in her best interests, and she will live a healthier and happier life because of them.[/size]
[size=2][/size]
[size=2]If, however, you distrust the parents completely, it's a different story. If her father is an incestuous pedophile, and her mother sympathizes with him, then every single operation performed is necessary for transforming Ashley into a permanent object of sexual abuse. No doctor will ever have an excuse to examine her vagina, because she no longer has any function in that area. Her father could abuse her, and allow others to abuse her for the rest of her life, and nobody would ever be able to know.[/size]
[size=2][/size]
[size=2]So, are the parents saints, or are they the worst kind of sinner? Only [i]they[/i] know the answer to that question. I imagine that they fall somewhere inbetween, though.[/size]
[size=2][/size]
[size=2]Since their goodness/evilness is not known, we should be able to explore their decision under the assumption that they are the worst parents in the world AND the best.[/size]

[Dagger]

I would like to point out that the doctors didn't just agree to it on the spot. The parents' motivations & intentions underwent a great deal of scrutiny, and I believe that the medical professionals involved in the case would have gotten an inkling if something were off. They have experience dealing with disabled children and their families and doubtless were aware of what to watch out for.

~Dagger~