What was the committee conclusion? What kind of “consensus” was it?

Dr. Gunther and Dr. Diekema wrote in their initial paper that it had been the ethics committee’s “consensus” to approve the parents’ requests as “ethically appropriate”. The minute of the committee also says that it was the “consensus.”  

 

It was the consensus of the Committee members that the potential long term benefit to Ashley herself outweighed the risks; and that the procedures/interventions would improve her quality of life, facilitate home care, and avoid institutionalization in the foreseeable future.

5/5/2004 – Special CHRME Ethics Committee Meeting/Consultation minute (WPAS report)

 

This January, Dr. Diekema sounded very sure of their decision when he talked to a local news paper right before his Calvin College lecture.

 

I still feel strongly that our committee made the right decision. Ashley ultimately has benefited like we thought she would.

The Grand Rapids Press, January 14, 2008

 

 

But reading pertaining documents very closely, you will encounter so much uncertainty and vagueness in Dr. Diekema’s explanation that you may wonder what the conclusion of the committee precisely was, or even if it was really a consensus. The following comments by Dr. Diekema don’t fully agree with the statements above, especially the one in the initial paper that the committee found the parents’ request “ethically appropriate” as its consensus.

 

I felt we were doing the right thing for this little girl — but that didn’t keep me from feeling a bit of unease.

TIME, January 7, 2007

 

Everybody left the room with some reservations because there are uncertainties. But nobody left the room feeling like we were making a big mistake.

Salon, February 9, 2007

 

There weren’t easy answer here. People didn’t agree at the beginning what to do. But we heard arguments and debated and discussed and ultimately pretty much reached agreement to let the parents have these things done.

Salon, February 9, 2007

It was not a vote. It was a consensus. There…I can tell you that there was no one in the room who disagreed with the decision.

Larry King Live, January 12, 2007

 

The reality is that there were very few if any people on our ethics committee who felt like they knew for certain what to do for this girl, but we did the best we could. We tried to do our best to determine what really was going to make her life as good as possible and remain faithful to the notion of treating others well.

Spark, Winter 2007

 

We concluded that in cases where reasonable people disagree about what is in a child’s best interest, parents should be able to decide.

Lecture at Calvin College (summary), January 18,

 

It’s fair to say that everybody in that room probably walked into the room thinking, “We’re probably going to have to say no to this family.” At the end of the meeting, it’s fair to say that everybody in that room was in agreement that ……..this really would probably benefit this little girl.

The Daily of the University of Washington, May 17, 2007

 

 

What kind of consensus is this? Was it the committee’s consensus that they would let the parents have their way because the committee had at least tried to do their best to decide that it would probably benefit Ashley, even though it was a case where they disagreed as reasonable people and they were uncertain and a bit uneasy and unconvinced that it was really in Ashley’s best interest, probably?  But how would all that be able to find the parents requests “ethically appropriate”?

 

 

Salon spoke to some doctors of the Seattle Children’s “who remain deeply troubled” by what had been done to Ashley and reported in its story (February 9, 2007) that the doctors agreed that there had been stronger disapproval within the hospital than had been revealed before.

 

The following comment made by Dr. Gunther might be highly suggestive.

 

…..board members took one hour to say they were not opposed.

Dr. Gunther, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 5, 2007

 

Sounds to me like the committee took one hour to silence the opposition and reach an agreement that they wouldn’t say they disagreed. Well……just probably.

 

 

To see how these comments by Dr. Diekema don’t sit well with his own official views on involuntary sterilization, visit the post Dr. Diekema’s official views on involuntary sterilization: Why did Dr. Diekema do everything he himself had said “Don’t” without doing things he himself had said “Do” in the Ashley case? and Dr. Diekema’s own conditions disapprove Ashley’s hysterectomy.