Doctor at center of stunting debate kills himself

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC

The doctor at the center of a controversial procedure which stunted the growth of a severely disabled girl has committed suicide.

Dr. Daniel F. Gunther died from toxic asphyxia from inhaling car exhaust, said Greg Hewett of the King County Medical Examiner's Office. His time of death was listed as 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 30. The 49-year-old was a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.

In 2004, Gunther and his colleague Dr. Douglas S. Diekema performed a hysterectomy, removed the breast tissue and started hormone treatment to permanently halt the growth of a 6-year-old disabled girl so her parents could continue to care for her at home. The doctors wrote about the procedure, which was performed at Children's Hospital, in the October 2006 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

News of the procedure last fall sparked debate about the ethics of the treatment both online and in the medical community. One poster on MSNBC.com's message boards called the procedure "offensive if not perverse." Others supported the decision: " I feel like everything are doing is intended to be in the best interest of their child."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21225569/

[rodeodance]

1. I read a longer story of this a while ago. I think the parents were only

trying to care for her the best they knew how.

[alphafemale]

2. I think they were.

As she would get bigger and they age, it would come to the point where her care would become unmanageable for them on their own.

It's a choice nearly unbearable to think about...and it would be nightmarish to contemplate this type of "treatment" being extended to less severely brain damaged children. :scared:

But what a tragic story all the way around.

:cry:

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. Anyone would have to walk a marathon in their shoes

before judging them. Their situation was far beyond the realm of normal.

[skids]

3. Anyone else open this thread just out of curiosity...

...what method a doctor uses to commit suicide? I was thinking it would be some fancy drug cocktail.

[Kolesar]

4. That sure was a sensationalistic headline

I can understand the parents' position on this issue.

[davepdx]

5. Doctors can't legally write prescriptions

for narcotics for themselves. They would have to get a prescription from another physician for a diagnosed condition that would require a narcotic.

[cmkramer]

6. I understand he aphyxiated himself. n/t

[superconnected]

7. I bet he picked the gentlest easiest way he could.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning.. I'll keep note of that for when I'm 80 and have alzheimers.

[zanne]

10. You won't remember. nt

[KamaAina]

8. The same method Dan White used to kill himself!

the former SF supervisor who murdered Mayor George Moscone and openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk. Shortly after his release from prison (?!), he, too, killed himself by sucking on an exhaust pipe -- an act rich in symbolism indeed. Of note is that Mayor Moscone was succeeded by the then-obscure chair of the Board of Supes -- none other than Dianne Feinstein.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=250&topic_id=3031&mesg_id=3031

Note: not comparing the "Ashley Treatment" to a double murder, merely pointing out what a guilty conscience will do.