General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We failed her. Big time. Boston Children’s was experimenting on Justina Pelletier, [View all]Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)If a parent is neglecting their child, I say absolutely step in. If a parent is abusing their child, then certainly we should step in. If the child is suffering from malnutrition, trauma, hostile home environment. OK, I'm there leading the crowd demanding action. If the child is being abused by sexual predators, I say that is one of the rare times I would support the Death Penalty. Could I pull the switch myself? For some of those guys, and the damage they've done, I'm pretty sure I could do them with a couple of car batteries and some jumper cables.
But claiming the parents are unfit for following medical advice is the question here. We aren't talking about some lunatic religious sect that thinks they can pray the cancer away. We're talking about people who went to the doctor, found a specialist, got treatment, saw improvement in the child. Now, the only way you could even begin to convince me that the parents were negligent in doing this is if the Doctor had their license to practice medicine revoked as a charlatan or a quack. Then, I might consider it. But even then, the parents are trying to find help for their child, and seeking answers, and seeking treatments.
God damn it that is why we passed the fucking ACA so that parents could care for their children. We made it part of the law that parents could keep their children on their policies while they were in college. We are trying to help children. Taking them away from parents who are by all accounts following medical advice, accepted medical advice I might add according to the American Medical Association, is asinine. Defending that barbaric policy places you on the side of the issue where people look at you with an are you serious expression for a reason.
The action is indefensible. The action was cruel. Taking her off her meds, and ignoring her deteriorating condition because some dolt thinks it's all in her head is torture. If I was on the jury, I'd give them every single cent that doctor will make in his new career, do you want fries with that? I'd bankrupt the city of Boston. I'd bankrupt Boston Childrens and turn it over to the Shriner's to run.
People who do try to find excuses keep forgetting one thing. All of those excuses, all of those arguments, all of those reasons were proven utterly false. They were weak to begin with, the got weaker as the case went on, and then after sixteen months they surrendered entirely for a reason. They were wrong. They were as wrong as it was humanly possible to be. The only way they could have been more wrong is to be wearing a GWB campaign button as they held the press conference. Liberals think so. Even lunatic RW morons who would rather eat a raw turd than agree with a liberal about the time of day think this was egregious. Now, you may work for Boston CFS. You may work at Boston Childrens. If so, I'd get my resume together, because before the lawsuit is done on this one, everyone who touched a piece of paper on this debacle is going to get burned, and they should.
Enron was criminal. Bush was a criminal. The people involved in this mess were diabolical and inhumane. They deserve exactly zero mercy from the jury. They deserve nothing but disdain and derision from the masses. I can't imagine a liberal standing firmly on the side of torturing children. I can't imagine a progressive arguing that in this case, perhaps it didn't work out, but perhaps next time we'll be right and it will be all in the child's head and the only way we'll find out is to risk their lives. That isn't medicine. That violates the very first rule of medicine, first do no harm. The Doctors involved should have been fired, and been bared from practicing medicine ever again before now. The people who made the argument on behalf of CFS that the parents were abusing their children by providing medical care from a respected doctor should be fired in disgrace. I'd even love to see the old practice of pillory brought back for this lot. Torturing a child, potentially causing such irreparable harm to her that she spends the rest of her life in a wheelchair is not a minor mistake. It is unforgivable. Keep defending this obscenity if you want. The rest of us will keep demanding only the highest standards of protection for a child. And medical testing on wards of the court, especially if it is expected to provide no benefit to the child, is inhumane, barbaric, and should be utterly rejected by every thinking human. It's astonishing to me that Michelle Bachman who is normally a bat shit crazy lunatic of the RW is on the right side of this issue, while you stand firmly on the pro torture side. By any chance, were you part of the team that argued that water-boarding wasn't really torture, because it did no permanent damage?