| | There have been a small number of cases like this over the years where parents do not obtain or refuse treatment for their child based upon beliefs that they hold and the child ends up suffering or dying as a result. Is this neglect or child abuse? I argue no. There is no indication of mal-intent, and the parents are not neglecting their child. On the contrary, they are actively attempting to help their child by curing the illness through prayer.
Do we know better. Sure we do. Because we judge ourselves to be rational in our knowledge and use of western medicine and judge these parents to be irrational in their belief in the power of faith. We think that they are irrational because they can not help but be exposed to the facts regarding the efficacy of medicine which permeate our culture, and yet they choose to willfully deny or ignore those facts and cling to their religion. We see that the consequences of holding those beliefs is a matter of life and death, and here is a case where it results in death.
On the other hand, I can imagine that these folks, along with so many others I have met, think something along the line that God's miracle is omni-present inside us as well as manifest in the surrounding world, and that it is we, the worshipers of reason and deniers of faith, who are guilty of willfully blinding ourselves to the truth. They may think that we have no choice but to avail ourselves of western medicine because our sin of cutting ourself off from direct contact with God means that we no longer have access to his healing comfort and power. Possibly they believe that through prayer, they not only work to save their lives, but also, and more importantly, actively work to save their immortal souls which will spend eternity in either heaven or hell, making our time here on earth all but inconsequential. I also suspect that they recognize that not everyone who prays has their life saved, but so too do people die despite the best efforts of medicine. These people may be part of a religious community where everyone else in that community believes the same things and there may be authority figures in that community whom they trust and look up to who have been telling them these things for years. Maybe they are doing what they honestly believe is the absolutely best thing for their child and are really pissed off that others are interfering in what they think should be a personal decision.
I'm not saying anything insightful or profound here. The purpose of this exercise is to hopefully make the point that we don't all view the world the same way. The difference between Objectivists firmly committed to reason and those committed to faith is a wide gulf and throws those competing commitments into sharper relief than some other differences, but if you are going to propose to dictate the requirement that all parents must avail themselves of medical treatment for their sick children, then how and where do you propose to draw the line? In fact, regardless of what you might say, the line has long been crossed. For example, you don't have the right to decide what sort of education your children should have. (See the current story unfolding in California regarding home schooling.) Do you think that should be your decision or the States? You can't decide what level of safety to provide for your children. The State decides what sort of seat they must use in the car, its placement, orientation and through what age. They decide that your kids must wear a bike helmet. All good ideas? Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe the State should decide exactly what your kids can eat. (They're working on that right now!) Maybe they should decide what sports they can and cannot play? It might be in your child's best interest for them to play a musical instrument. Should the decision to give them music lessons be left up to the parent who might make the wrong choice and retard their development, robbing them if their full potential? Sports or music? None, one or both? Can we know we are making the correct decision? Maybe the State could make a better choice, or at least relieve us from the responsibility of having to decide ourselves.
And once we get parenting under control - all in the name of protecting the innocents who are not fully developed and capable of making rational choices for themselves - why stop there. If a bike helmet is good for a kid, why not require one for you too. and if you choose to not wear a seatbelt while driving, you are clearly impaired in you judgment, so let's not leave it up to you, let's pass a law and force you to wear one. You'll thank me later. In fact, this whole area of medical care is just too important to leave any part of it in your hands, so let's have the State take over the whole thing and administer it to us all. Then it won't just be parents who are relieved from making a wrong decision. We will all be in the same boat and, by definition, all medical decisions will then be fair and correct ones. I see a day when all children happily bounce their balls in unison on the sidewalk in front of their houses. (A literary reference in case you are wondering.)
If you think you know what is best for this little girl and her parents, and you think we should put their feet to the fire for making a decision that you believe to have been wrong, then please consider where that sort of thinking will inevitably lead. Yes, it is a tragedy that this girl died from a preventable illness and I feel very sorry for her bad luck to have been born to these particular parents. But if you want to live in a society based upon maximum liberty which allows for individual differences in how people conduct their lives, then you must also be willing to accept that those that I affectionately refer to as STUPID SHITS (see here) are going to make some boneheaded decisions and they will occasionally have disastrous results. The price of freedom includes the ability to fail. I'm sure that these parents are devastated by the loss of their daughter. They are paying the price for their mistake. And any rational person seeing this tragedy unfold in the news can learn the lesson here. There is nothing to be accomplished by attempting to prosecute these sad people. Rather than restricting the freedom to think in this area, let's put our efforts into regaining control over the vast tracts of our lives that have been usurped over time by the government.
Regards,
--
Jeff
|
|
