{"id":77475,"date":"2020-09-29T00:27:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T21:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/there-may-be-a-cure-for-dwarfism-but-some-call-it-unethical\/"},"modified":"2020-09-29T00:27:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T21:27:11","slug":"there-may-be-a-cure-for-dwarfism-but-some-call-it-unethical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/there-may-be-a-cure-for-dwarfism-but-some-call-it-unethical\/","title":{"rendered":"#There may be a cure for dwarfism \u2014 but some call it unethical"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#There may be a cure for dwarfism \u2014 but some call it unethical<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/achondroplasia-leah-smith.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n                        A new drug offers children with dwarfism the chance at a life with fewer medical issues and closer-to-average height \u2014 but there is controversy over whether normalizing dwarves\u2019 bodies is ethical.<\/p>\n<p>A study published this month in the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(20)31541-5\/fulltext#articleInformation\">journal the Lancet<\/a> reported that a once-daily injection of growth drug vosoritide \u201cis an effective treatment to increase growth in children with achondroplasia,\u201d which is the most common form of dwarfism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe main purpose of the drug is to improve the quality of life for children with achondroplasia,\u201d Dr. Melita Irving, a consultant clinical geneticist and the leader of the UK trial for vosoritide, told <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2020\/sep\/28\/there-is-a-fear-that-this-will-eradicate-dwarfism-the-controversy-over-a-new-growth-drug\">the Guardian<\/a>. \u201cI see benefits in so many aspects of their lives \u2014 physically, psychologically, functionally and with respect to their health as well. It\u2019s very exciting for those children and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The growth drug is a major development, as there are currently no effective therapies for achondroplasia, and it is known to cause a variety of chronic health issues including sleep apnea, spinal stenosis and skull issues. These are often treated with surgical operations which bring on further complications, including \u201cparalysis, pain on a daily basis, sleep apnea and serious neurological complications,\u201d said Irving.<\/p>\n<p>Although vosoritide may help to rid children with achondroplasia of future health problems, some have deemed it controversial since it would \u201cfix\u201d their short stature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople like me are endangered and now they want to make me extinct,\u201d said Leah Smith, a spokeswoman for Little People of America, told the Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I could take a drug to get rid of my spinal stenosis [when the spinal column narrows and starts to compress the spinal cord], I would take it,\u201d disability lecturer Erin Pritchard, who has achondroplasia, told the Guardian. \u201cBut to get rid of my identity as a person with dwarfism, to make me grow so that I fit in society and I don\u2019t get stared at, pointed out, laughed at, photographed, I think that\u2019s where it gets problematic, because I should not have to change to fit in with a prejudiced society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Defendants argue that the drug does not rid takers of their achondroplasia, but it simply makes it easier to physically function.<\/p>\n<p>Kristina Gray, mother of 9-year-old Samuel, who has achondroplasia, said he has been taking vosoritide since he was 6-and-a-half and has grown 50 percent faster than would be expected, likely as a result of the drug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s still Samuel, he still has achondroplasia, but he is choosing to have a life where he can access things more easily, take care of himself, hopefully have a long life without needing to use a wheelchair or with spinal issues and arthritis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><!--If the slideshow is embedded in another post type add the inline wrapper --><\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/09\/28\/there-may-be-a-cure-for-dwarfism-but-some-call-it-unethical\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#There may be a cure for dwarfism \u2014 but some call it unethical&#8221; A new drug offers children with dwarfism the chance at a life with fewer medical issues and closer-to-average height \u2014 but there is controversy over whether normalizing dwarves\u2019 bodies is ethical. A study published this month in the journal the Lancet reported&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/achondroplasia-leah-smith.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[73245,73400,73401,67907,9724],"class_list":["post-77475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-9-28-20","tag-dwarfism","tag-medical-breakthroughs","tag-science","tag-study-says"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}