Inclusion Daily Express -- Medical Association Refuses To Meet With Protesters

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Medical Association Refuses To Meet With Protesters
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
February 6, 2007

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS--Friday's Chicago Defender reported that an official with the American Medical Association said the CEO of the physicians' organization would not be meeting with disability rights activists over the controversial "Ashley Treatment".

"I know that there is not going to be a meeting between the AMA exec and the protestors," said Jann Ingmire, director of media relations for JAMA and its archives. "That is not going to happen."

On January 11, a crowd of about two-dozen disability rights advocates, many in wheelchairs, gathered at the AMA's national headquarters in Chicago. The activists, organized by the Feminist Response in Disability Activism, and including members of the grassroots disability rights groups ADAPT and Not Dead Yet, were there to demand that the AMA condemn the practice of forcing children with disabilities to undergo hormone treatments and surgeries to keep them small.

The procedure, named by the Seattle parents of the anonymous 9-year-old girl known only as "Ashley X", was revealed last October in an article published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a periodical of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The protesters learned that AMA CEO Dr. Michael Maves was out of town. They ended the demonstration, however, only after his secretary committed to arranging an appointment for him with representatives from the groups, they said.

FRIDA member Amber Smock, who was instrumental in organizing the January protest, told the Defender her group is working on a letter, phone call and fax campaign to urge the AMA to meet with activists.

"The goal is really to open discussion with the AMA and for the AMA to engage with the disability community," she said. "Now it's a good opportunity for doctors and people in the disability community to come together."

Mainstream and grassroots disability groups in the United States and the United Kingdom have launched campaigns to prevent the use of medical procedures designed to keep people with disabilities physically small.

Michigan disability rights advocate Susan Fitzmaurice launched a website allowing fellow advocates to sign on to a statement responding to the "Ashley Treatment". As of this writing, more than 400 individuals and groups had signed on to the statement.

Related:
"Activists for disabled maintain AMA shunned them" (Chicago Defender)
http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/local.cfm?ArticleID=8369
"A Statement of Solidarity for the Dignity of People With Disabilities: A Reaction to the 'Ashley Treatment'"
http://pub6.bravenet.com/guestbook/501900445
"Disability Advocates Respond To 'Ashley Treatment' Designed To Keep Girl Small" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/families/ashleyx.htm

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