Let’s Talk: Could you make this difficult choice for your grandchild?

At first glance, this beautiful little girl looks happy as can be, but in fact the large birthmark on her face is of concern.

Her parents are hoping the public will help to donate funds on fundraising website Go Fund Me so that little Ruby can have extensive plastic surgery to remove the hair-covered, dark birthmark.

It had us wondering: what would we do if we were in this situation? We all know that babies are precious and we’d love them so much no matter what they looked like – but what about the rest of the world? Commenters on the Daily Mail’s article have been quick to ask whether there were medical reasons little seven-month-old Ruby was going to have the surgery on her face.

One lady said, “Having been through skin grafts as an adult, i would never put my daughter through them unless needed or she chose to, you can see the scars a lot, to me she’s a beautiful little girl who doesn’t need such huge operations, she could get bullied for the skin graft scars, then what. Let her decide when she’s older”, while another said “I totally agree Chloe. I had a skin graft done like that when I was 3 years old as I had one similar on the left side of my forehead. I’m glad I had it done as now I have left is a minor scar”.

The Daily Mail reports Ruby Ashby is one in 500,000 children born with Congenital Melanocytic Nevus which covers the right side of her face and head.

The tiny baby, from Towradji near Wollongong, needs seven operations to fully remove the dark, hairy mark before she starts school. The first operation costs $10,000 and takes place on January 12.

‘We just want the best for her. We are hoping by the time she starts school the mark will be gone, it takes time though because we have to give time for the skin to heal between surgeries”.

We want to know today: If your grandchild had a facial birthmark or another type of scar, would you want them to have it operated on? Why or why not?