A Reuters story carried by a number of outlets within the past few days raised this question. I happened to see the report while I was on the phone with another Catholic mother from my parish and we started discussing it. The initial reaction both of us had was negative and was based on asking the question: Who benefits from this? Is this being done solely for the benefit of the child or for someone else’s convenience?
Later, though, I ran across this paragraph from Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services: “The well-being of the whole person must be taken into account in deciding any therapeutic intervention or use of technology. Therapeutic procedures that are likely to cause harm or undesirable side-effects can be justified only by a proportionate benefit to the patient.”
I must say that that gave me pause. If keeping the child small was the factor that would make the difference between keeping a profoundly disabled child in a loving home environment versus having to place the child in an institutional setting, certainly that would affect the well-being of the whole person. Is it a proportionate benefit? Not sure what I think now.
