Should severely disabled children be kept small?

Interesting case where growth-attenuation therapy is used to permanently halt a 6-year old’s growth so parents can continue to care for her at home:

“Achieving permanent growth attenuation while the child is still young and of manageable size would remove one of the major obstacles to family care and might extend the time that parents with the ability, resources, and inclination to care for their child at home might be able to do so,” Gunther and Diekema write.

The parents of the 6-year-old, both of whom were college-educated professionals, indicated a strong desire to continue caring for their daughter. Despite having the neurologic development no greater than that of an infant, the 6-year-old responds to her parents and two healthy siblings — vocalizing and smiling in response to care and affection — and “clearly is an integral, and much loved, member of the family,” the authors note.

(via a reader tip)

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