Ricky Preslar Case Study

For caregivers of someone with a disability, dealing with everyday tasks related to the disability can be a challenging feat. For some families, a solution to this problem was aided by a controversial medical intervention that stunted the growth of the disabled individual at a young age. This stunting of growth has caused debate amongst individuals on whether or not it is ethical to do so to the child. For the Preslar’s, however, medically stunting their son’s growth was the answer to their future caregiver woes. As a result of a complication during pregnancy, Ricky Preslar was diagnosed at a young age with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic quadriplegia with static encephalopathy (Field, 2016). In non-technical language, this disease means that Ricky has permanent brain damage and severely limited eyesight due to cortical vision impairment. At three months of age, he was diagnosed with an atypically small brain as well. Four years later, Ricky’s parents heard of the controversial medical intervention called “growth attenuation therapy,” and opted to have their son undergo this treatment. This form of therapy uses relatively high doses of estrogen to cause premature closure of the growth plates in long bones (Field, 2016). Closing of growth plates in bones …show more content…
One of the primary reasons for believing that this treatment may be unethical is that the disabled child does not get the opportunity to have a say in whether or not they would like to have the treatment done. One could even argue that the parent decides for their child to undergo the treatment to benefit them and not the child. This form of therapy has the capability to violate a child’s right to freedom from unnecessary bodily manipulation. In addition, to say that this is not a valid form of treatment is arguable, because it does not necessarily treat or cure an