Kirsten “Kiki” Kuhnert watches as a 350-pound dolphin named Matteo tickles a toddler with his snout. It’s a scene that Kuhnert has watched thousands of times; a single mother from Key Biscayne, she’s dedicated the past 15 years of her life to raising funds for dolphin-assisted therapy, a controversial behavior-modification treatment for severely disabled children.

“All animal therapy is controversial, because it hasn’t been researched as it should have been,” says Janelle Nimer, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tennessee who researched dolphin therapy for her three-year fellowship in veterinary medicine. “People are afraid dolphins are being mistreated. You have exotic animals and parents of autistic kids who are willing to try anything.”

The therapy has been the target of criticism from animal rights groups, which consider it dangerous to humans and unfair to dolphins. “Because of the lack of scientific study, there are two vulnerable groups being exploited: dolphins and children and parents seeking a miracle under expensive circumstances,” said Courney Vail, director of the Caribbean program for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. The treatment can cost $7,000 or more for just two weeks of care.

While Kuhnert is convinced that swimming with the animals paired with intensive speech or physical therapy helps autism, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other debilitating aliments and birth defects, she admits that she isn’t exactly a trained expert. But “I have seen kids speak their first word, mothers cry because their autistic son looked at her in the eye or kissed her.”

A widower father of four is suing the state of Florida in an attempt to get Medicaid to cover the diapers worn by his teenage daughter. Sharett, the 16 year-old daughter of Floyd Smith, suffers from cerebral palsy and mental retardation.

Medicaid currently covers the cost of diapers for children, but not for teens. Sharett’s diapers are the family’s second biggest expense, and cost around $2,400 a year. This is a huge expense for a family of 5 trying to survive on an annual income of only $12,000.

Cerebral palsy is a serious, permanent, degenerative condition that can be caused at birth by negligent doctors or hospitals. Sufferers of cerebral palsy often do not survive childhood, and are completely dependent on their parents or caretakers.

Twenty-four year-old Geoff Sadlier has been awarded 3.35 million euros for his birth trauma.

Through his mother, Sadlier sued the hospital in which he was born for failing to act on information regarding his fetal health. He was born brain damaged and in serious condition after a caesarean section that was performed too late. He suffered from asphyxiation, motor dysfunction on his right side, and cerebral palsy as well as other cognitive difficulties.

The court conceded that though Sadlier was not as seriously brain damaged as some other children, his life has still been devastated due to negligent doctors and staff.

He went to school till he was 19, finished a 4-year training course, and is now in a rehabilitation center where he is working on speech and motor function.