From The Guardian UK
By Mary Riddell

Ashley X was never destined for marvels. Her mind is locked in infancy and she cannot walk, talk, eat or raise her head. Undaunted, her parents and her surgeons have made her the heroine of a medical fairy tale in which she will have the body of a child of nine for as long as she lives.

Her womb and breasts have been removed and hormone treatment has halted her growth and limited her weight to 75lbs. The decision by Ashley’s father to write an awesomely intimate blog detailing, and commending to others, his daughter’s drastic treatment has prompted what the media call worldwide controversy.

That is not strictly true. Disabled groups are broadly against the intervention. Some families facing similar problems are in favour. As one parent of a teenage daughter wrote: ‘Please don’t judge until you’ve tried wrestling a 220lb scared child out of the bathtub by yourself.’ But the fuss has actually been rather slight by the screechy standards of debates on human engineering.

In America, where Ashley lives, the right to abortion is under constant threat. George W Bush, in the first veto of his presidency, killed a bill to provide federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. In Britain, the government appears to have bowed to pro-life pressure over fusing human DNA with animal eggs. Despite some emollient words from Tony Blair, scientists believe that a ban will be imposed this week, so depriving people with Alzheimer’s and motor neurone disease of the hope of medical breakthrough.

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