static encephalopathy (the little girl's condition) is basically permanent or un-changing brain damage.
What happens if, in the next ?? years, there is a medical breakthrough and brains can be repared. Now this wouldn't suddenly give everyone an IQ of 180, but it would definately enable Ashley to grow and learn.
She'd be slightly annoyed, a few years down the line, to learn what her parents have done to her body.
I'm not saying that what the parents have done is wrong, just lacks hope.
