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While I can completely understand the parents reasons for wanting to stop Ashley's physical development, caring for so severly disababled adult is difficult at best and if not done completely by family members can be dangerous for women in particular, there is a risk of sexual abuse by caretakers amongst other typs of abuse. I am wondering if the method by which this end was arrived was one of convenience. The radical surgery was only one way of arriving at this end. There are drug therapies that could achieve the same results, that being a combination of Sandostatin which inhibits the production of human growth hormone and depo Lupron which stops the production of secondary sex hormones ie estrogen and testosterone to name two common ones in both males and females. Both of these drugs are used in pediatric endocrinolgy to treat various hormonal problems. Were these types of therapies considered, was it an insurance issue, certainly drug therapy would be more costly in the long run, but not as radical and permenant as surgery.
As for the "Pillow Angel" discomfort so many mentioned I take it as a nickname given a child by loving parents, many kids have family nicknames that could be creepy to people outside the family, most are not quite so known to the public.
