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Why they stunted their daughter's growth
Parents of the "pillow angel," the severely disabled girl who underwent controversial surgeries to keep her small, give their first interview.
Carol Lloyd [2008-03-13]

  • PSOs

    "Humans are defined by their intelligence."

    Please, give me an I.Q. cutoff that defines someone as human. Most of us would call a person with an I.Q. of 80 human; in clinical terms, that's mildly-moderately retarded. Koko the gorilla and Alex the African grey parrot were estimated to have I.Q.s in that range.

    Can a human cease to be a human if their intelligence falls below a certain line? Using your logic that intelligence makes a person human, my grandmother was a highly intelligent, outspoken human for the first 75 or so years of her life. She gave birth to four decidedly human daughters, who had ten decidedly human children of their own, who have had fifteen decidedly human children of THEIR own so far. But...thanks to Alzheimer's, in the last seven years of her life, Grandma lived a life that very similarly resembled Ashley's. At what point did she cease to be a human?

    -- Leeandra Nolting
    [Read Leeandra Nolting's other letters]
    Thursday, March 13, 2008 05:16 PM
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