Saturday, January 28, 2006
The Worst Cultural Trend
We bloggers discuss cultural trends endlessly, but the is one we write around, but never tackle directly. Dehumanization. As we commodify everything from soup to nuts, from healthcare to church, people stop being people and start being objects. They are market, they are target, they are audience, they are seeker, but they increasingly are not Joe, Mary, or Fred.
Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in end of life issues. We saw it in the Terri Schiavo case where she became a thing argued about endlessly by politicians, parents, "spouses," and all the rest of us for that matter. We are seeing it again in the case of Haleigh Poutre about which I blogged earlier.
She has now been moved from a hospital where she was to have life support withdrawn to a rehabilitation center where they will try to help her live. And as time goes on we learn more and more of the story. And once again we see a human being, in this case an 11-year-old child, reduced to a possession to be swapped, traded, and bargained over.
I cannot help but reflect on the fact that when the church was part of common social discourse, even for the non-believer, situations like this were better. The church could be relied upon to treat people with humanity.
Related Tags: commodification, humanity, cultural trends, Haleigh Poutre
Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in end of life issues. We saw it in the Terri Schiavo case where she became a thing argued about endlessly by politicians, parents, "spouses," and all the rest of us for that matter. We are seeing it again in the case of Haleigh Poutre about which I blogged earlier.
She has now been moved from a hospital where she was to have life support withdrawn to a rehabilitation center where they will try to help her live. And as time goes on we learn more and more of the story. And once again we see a human being, in this case an 11-year-old child, reduced to a possession to be swapped, traded, and bargained over.
DSS won approval from a Juvenile Court judge to remove Haleigh's feeding tube and ventilator about three weeks after she was first hospitalized. But her stepfather, Jason Strickland, appealed that decision to the Supreme Judicial Court. Strickland has been charged with assaulting Haleigh, and could face a murder charge if she dies.And, frankly, by defintion, the government is no help. It is the nature of bureacracy to make such situations commodified.
The SJC ruled against Strickland's appeal earlier this month, saying he has no right to make decisions for the girl. A day after the ruling, DSS officials reported changes in Haleigh's condition.
Haleigh's adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, was also charged with assaulting the girl. But Strickland, who was also Haleigh's aunt, died alongside her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide about two weeks after Haleigh was hospitalized.
During the last three years, DSS was aware that Haleigh had suffered injuries. But social workers and doctors believed that the girl's wounds were self-inflicted, and thought Holli Strickland was trying to help her adoptive daughter.
DSS Commissioner Harry Spence has defended his agency's treatment of the case, but criticism of how it was handled has sparked a legislative investigation. Gov. Mitt Romney said he will appoint an independent panel to probe the case.
Haleigh's birth mother, Allison Avrett, would not comment on her daughter's case. Avrett let her sister adopt Haleigh in 2001 after deciding she could not properly care for the girl.
I cannot help but reflect on the fact that when the church was part of common social discourse, even for the non-believer, situations like this were better. The church could be relied upon to treat people with humanity.
Related Tags: commodification, humanity, cultural trends, Haleigh Poutre
