Unnecessary operations on girl with disabilities leads to heated debates on popular CNN news & interview shows:

The U.S. mass media has been heavily covering the story about Seattle parents who chose to have unnecessary operations on Ashley, their 9 year old daughter with significant disabilities, in order to limit her growth and eliminate her sexual development and ability to reproduce. The family and the medical team justify these operations because they make it easier to care for Ashley at home and may reduce the chance of her being abused. PAI Attorney Stephen Rosenbaum was featured on both the January 9 Paula Zahn show and the January 12 Larry King Live interview program to speak out as a disability rights lawyer and a parent of a teenager with similar disabilities. He pointed out “It’s about dignity, quality of life, with whatever supports or accommodation are needed…We have to look at all people, regardless of the severity of disability, and give them the opportunity to develop the best that they can.” The TV programs (read transcripts here) and resulting blogs primarily feature two opposing points of view: the medical model, which in this case, labels the unnecessary operations as “treatments” and lauds the doctors for their alleviation of “suffering;” countered by the disability rights groups who promote a social model, which calls for adapting the environment to the individual, not changing the individual to fit the needs of caretakers.

Zahn: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/09/pzn.01.html

King: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/12/lkl.01.html