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Cerebral palsy sufferer raises op questionsDate: 17/10/2007 09:21:54
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The case of Katie Thorpe, a teenager sufferer of severe cerebral palsy, has renewed debates about the ethics of making surgical decisions for those who cannot offer consent.
Without the mental capacity to offer her own opinion, the mother of Katie Thorpe, Alison, has bypassed medical advice and requested surgery to remove her daughter's womb, in order to save her the indignity that menstruation could bring.
Ms Thorpe senior has claimed that the onset of menstruation would put new strains on her daughter's body which she would not be in a position to understand or deal with discreetly.
With surgeons agreeing but awaiting legal confirmation that the operation can be carried out, the Independent hailed the important contribution of the case to a key debate in medical ethics.
"No one gives much thought to the fact that disabled women do have periods, never mind use these products. Thanks to Katie Thorpe, everyone's thinking about it now," said the newspaper.
The independent, however, added a note of caution: "Major surgery is never risk free. Beyond that, women who have early hysterectomies are at greater risk of early menopause and the health problems associated with that."
Raising questions of how far surgical interference can go, the case renews some of the doubts sparked off by operations on an American nine-year-old girl, known as Ashley X, to prevent the brain impairment sufferer from 'growing up'.
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