This should be a lesson for ALL Democratic presidential candidates. Next time, it shouldn't take an entire day to figure out that it isn't a good idea to cave instantly in to right wing pressure. The harder the right pushes, the harder we have to push back. Never make a decision based soley on what the right-wing wants. There may come a time when they actually attack us for something valid, in which case we can respond appropriately, after sober reflection. We need a president who will fight for our country. How can we expect anybody to defend our nation against outside threats if he can't even fight internal opposition effectively?

I can't believe the doctor who said they should wait and see what would happen. Her body "might" not have outgrown her parents ability to carry her. Of course, if it had, then the only option would have been that she stay at home in bed for the rest of her life, or be institutionalized. The doctor would have shaken his head and moved on to the next patient. At least he didn't risk "mutilating" her. As for the one who said that this girl had a right to experience sexual pleasure... she is unable to consent to sexual pleasure with a partner, and probably unable to masturbate, so I have no idea how this would happen.

The worst are the "slippery slope" arguments. We shouldn't do this to Ashley because it might lead to using the treatment on less disabled people? Since when were all people, much less all disabled people, treated medically using the same methods? I'm really tired of people lumping all "disabled" people together, as if Terry Schiavo is the same as a person with a missing limb is the same as someone with cerebral palsy is the same as someone who is blind. That's pure nonsense. Each case must be treated individually. It's time that doctors, and advocates for the disabled, and the general public, started to recognize that we can't base treatment for one person on what might happen to others. People deserve to be treated in a way that is best for them, not in a way that is best for someone with some other level of disability.

I can only admire the dedication of the parents who have chosen to care for Ashley instead of putting her in a care facility. They are showing a level of love and compassion and sacrifice that would be beyond the capacity of most people. I also admire the courage of the doctors who were willing to do something unconventional to help them to retain the quality of their daughter's life. And to the critics: Pray that if anybody ever has to make decisions for you, they will show as much compassion.

We know that the "tissue" we are abortion is a vaguely human shaped creature with the potential of being a full person in it's own right. We aren't stupid. Nothing good can come of this. Women who are sure that they don't want a baby should be able to get an abortion, no questions asked. They should not be tortured with possibilities. We don't force people who are about to get appendectomies to watch movies of the procedure, or to consider the alternatives, or to watch ultrasound pictures of their appendix. If abortion is about murder of a human being, then it would be a good thing to try to talk women out of doing it. If abortion is, as I believe, just a simple medical procedure, then we should butt out and let them get the damn abortion.

"We deeply empathize with parents who face difficult issues raising children with significant physical and intellectual disabilities. However, we hold as non-negotiable the principle that personal and physical autonomy of all people with disabilities be regarded as sacrosanct.

This is from the link you posted. You seem to feel that Ashley was cheated by the system of her opportunity for independence. This shows either a tragic level of ignorance about the case or a desire to distort the case for your own means. This child was cheated out of her autonomy by a cruel twist of nature, not by doctors or her family. She CANNOT ever make a decision for herself. If there are future implications for this case, then they apply only to those very rare cases where an undeveloped brain is encased in a normal body. There is no "system" that will fix her. The best her family can do is to give her whatever pleasure she can experience from life by taking her places and not leaving her in a bed all day, and to protect her from whatever pain they can. This girl has a malformation that keeps her from ever growing into a full, thinking, person. Using her as a poster child for "autonomy" is an insult to the majority of the disabled community members who are able and willing to make decisions for themselves.

Let her live her life with whatever comfort and joy her parents can bring her, and go back and fight for the rights of people who actually have the intellect to care. This girl is not a poster-child for disability. She not merely disabled. She's in a category too rare to even have a name.

And, while we're at it, how many campaign trips did bush make using Air Force I? And Cheney in II? And how much did they reimburse the government for those trips? I'm thinking that maybe the members of the White House don't want to go down this road too far. It's too bad the media probably won't think of the idea of writing a story comparing bush's flight costs to those of Pelosi.