Jenn Hooper holds her daughter Charley, 10, in Bali, Indonesia (Picture: AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

The parents of a disabled girl have opted to permanently stunt her growth and remove her womb in the hopes of improving her life.

Charley Hooper cannot speak, walk, or control her limbs and is almost blind after being left severely brain damaged due to being deprived of enough oxygen at birth and being diagnosed with epilepsy.

The 10-year-old is 4ft 3in tall and currently weighs less than four stone.

She is unable to express herself, with her parents, Jenn and Mark Hooper, having to interpret how she feels or what she wants by the tone of her moans and the muscle spasms on her face.




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(Picture: AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Mark Hooper carries Charley (Picture: AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

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Jenn and Mark hope that by keeping her at her current size for the rest of her life they will be able to take her on family outings – fearing that if she gets too big she will be confined to a bed.

Critics also hope that removing her womb will spare her the pain of having periods.

The New Zealand family’s decision make them one of the few families to use the controversial treatment, known as growth attenuation.

The treatment was eventually blocked by the ethics board, however now the Hoopers have been able to travel to South Korea to start the hormone treatment, which critics claim is a violation of the patient’s human rights.

They also point to the fact that Charley is unable to give her consent to the treatment.

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The Hooper family on holiday (Picture: AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Jenn Hooper said: ‘We haven’t stopped [Charley] doing anything.

‘Growing would have stopped her doing things.

‘We didn’t take away any choices that weren’t already taken from her.’

However Margaret Nygren, CEO of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, claims the treatment is intended to benefit the lives of people around the patient, rather than the patient themselves.

She said: ‘The idea behind growth attenuation is that you’re keeping someone small for the convenience of those around them, not so that the individual is able to have the most fulfilling life, and I think that’s the crux of the ethical issue.

‘Would you ever want this kind of treatment done to you without your consent or knowledge? And if the answer is no, then why would one want to do that to someone else?’