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On July 25, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the injection of human growth hormone to "abnormally short" children who are otherwise completely healthy. According to Associated Press, growth hormone "has been used for 16 years to treat children who are extremely short because their bodies don't naturally produce the substance or because of a few other growth-stunting diseases," but this is the first time the drug is approved for children who do not have any of these medical conditions but are simply short. The regimen involves six shots a week for years and will cost each family $10,000 to $25,000 per year.
Interestingly, doctors insist that "this is not cosmetic use." Both FDA and Eli Lilly & Co., the manufacturer of the hormone, state that the goal of the treatment is to improve children's quality of life by avoiding situations like "being ostracized in elementary school" for not being able to reach the water foundation, or being "too short to even reach a car's pedals." But the gender discrepancy inherent in the standard by which they decide a child's eligibility for the hormone treatment--boys must be predicted to be shorter than 5-feet, 3-inches as adults, and girls shorter than 4-feet, 11 inches--itself is a proof that this is a highly invasive and costly medical intervention whose goal is to get around social stigmas rather than any actual physical condition.
Posted by Emi on Jul 25, 2003