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CTION ALERT
Fax/E-mail/Phone Campaign
Feminist Response in Disability Activism (FRIDA), with the support of Chicago ADAPT, the national ADAPT community and Not Dead Yet, invites you to speak out about the “Ashley Treatment.”
Our Targets: Seattle Children’s Hospital staff involved in the case of nine-year-old Ashley’s growth attenuation and sterilization, as well as Melinda Gates, chair of the Seattle Children’s Hospital fundraising committee and Susan Macek, Director of Communications for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Why: To oppose their permission of what is now known as the “Ashley Treatment,” and to condemn further permission of such “treatments” for children with disabilities whose lives are not otherwise at risk.
When: Tuesday, January 9, 2007, starting at 9 am in your time zone.
Contact Info:
Dr. Douglas Diekema
Phone: 206-987-2380
B-5520 – Emergency Medicine
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Fax: (206) 987-3836
E-mail: Douglas.diekema@seattlechildrens.org
Dr. Daniel F. Gunther
Phone: (206) 987-2380
M1-3 – Endocrinology
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Fax: (206) 987-3836
E-mail: Dan.gunther@seattlechildrens.org
Melinda Gates
PO Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
Phone: (206) 709-3100
Fax: (206) 709-3252
Email: info@gatesfoundation.org
Susan Macek
Director of Communications, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Phone: (206) 987-5201
Pager: (206) 469-6310
E-mail: susan.macek@seattlechildrens.org
Ashley is a nine-year-old with a severe cognitive disability. In order to keep her small and more easily cared for by her family, doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital are having her undergo hormone “therapy” to stunt her growth. In addition, they surgically removed her breast buds, uterus and appendix. The “Ashley Treatment,” as her parents call it, is a medical “fix” to serious social problems we face in America today. The first of these problems is a lack of quality home-based services for people with disabilities. The second is the social attitude that people with disabilities are less than human and therefore fair game for experimentation. The third is a lack of understanding of disability vs. illness: as Joe Hall of South Carolina has stated, “When I was born my parents knew that I would never walk, but they would have never thought it would be acceptable to cut my legs off.”
To review Ashley’s parents’ blog, please see:
http://ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com/
To review one of the original articles as reported by the BBC, please see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6229799.stm
We need to let the Seattle Children’s Hospital and its fundraising chairperson know that the Ashley Treatment has not gone unnoticed by those of us who live with disabilities.
For more information, AND TO KEEP US POSTED OF YOUR “ASHLEY TREATMENT” ACTIVITIES, please call Sharon Lamp at (847) 803-3258 or e-mail Amber Smock at ambity@aol.com.
