CACL Press Release: Hormone Treatment Dehumanizing

Canadian Association for Community Living

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hormone Treatment Dehumanizing

January 5, 2007 (ON) – Throughout history people with disabilities have been
vulnerable to de-valuing and dehumanizing treatment. It appears that in the
21st Century this vulnerability remains. The Canadian Association for
Community Living (CACL) is appalled with the precedent being set by the
“Ashley Treatment,” a collection of medical interventions including
hysterectomy, breast bud removal and the intentional use of hormone
treatment to attenuate growth and development into adulthood.

The medical and ethical acceptance of this treatment should send alarm bells
ringing:
Ø There is a problem – when a family is unable to find the supports
they need to care for the family member they love;
Ø There is a problem – when communities do not recognize people with
disabilities as full persons deserving of equal treatment and respect
Ø There is a problem – when ethics review at a hospital approves a
course of treatment that will deny a young girl her adulthood.

This case marks a dangerous trend and a new low in the medical and ethical
treatment of people with disabilities. It is tacit approval that people
with disabilities, particularly those with significant disabilities, are not
to be recognized as human in the same way others are. It is explicit
approval that the bodies and lives of people with disabilities can be
manipulated at others’will.

We believe this is a profoundly misguided, unethical decision on the part of
all those involved.

The President of CACL, Ms Zuhy Sayeed, is deeply offended by the message
this decision sends to communities: “As a mother, I know that caring for a
child with a disability is not always easy – parenting never is. I also
know that I would never try to change the developmental path of my child
with a disability or any of my children. It worries me that this decision
lets society off the hook. Instead of placing the responsibility on
communities to provide the supports that families needs, this treatment
suggests that the person with a disability should be bio-medically altered
in ‘the best interests’ of individuals and families. We must challenge such
failed and dangerous logic.”

CACL Executive Vice President, Michael Bach, echoed those concerns: “CACL
rejects the notion that it is acceptable to dehumanize a young girl. CACL
believes all people should be seen as persons first, which requires equal
respect and dignity. When we begin to believe that different standards can
be used in how we treat people we set ourselves on a slippery slope. The
ethics of this decision and the implications of this decision must be
questioned and rejected.”
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CACL is a family-based national federation of 420 local associations and 13
provincial/territorial associations for community living that advocate for
the human rights and equal citizenship of people with intellectual
disabilities.

For more information please contact:
Zuhy Sayeed (780-871-1979) or Michael Bach (416-209-7942)