Quote:
Originally Posted by citadel
In that particular case, I agree with you about the remedy. But what is science other than guesswork? Tested and confirmed?
|
Science isn't guesswork, it's the most successful system in determining objective reality. It's infinitely more successful than religion in treating people with injuries and illnesses. Science is the absolute best tool we have available for treating ill children, regardless of your religious beliefs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by citadel
It has taken a series of tragedies to get where we are today with medical knowledge, and I guarantee you that things we are doing right now will be laughed at in a hundred years or so.
|
It's taken a series not of tragedies, but breakthroughs to get where we are today with medical knowledge. Where we are is fairly daunting. Did you know, for example, that my descending aorta is made of plastic? I was born with a cardiovascular defect that required surgery—not prayer—to correct. Every generation sees medical knowledge and practice grow more and more complex and precise, and more capable. The same was true 100 years ago, which was similarly more advanced than 200 years ago. All of this is irrelevant to the topic, though. Current medical knowledge and ability would have saved this child's life. We have plenty of experience treating blood infections and pneumonia. I myself had endocarditis at age 7 and was cured by what was modern medicine 20 years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by citadel
As you said, the parents are responsible for the well being of their child, not the government. Whatever form of voodoo they wish to practice to avoid whichever afterlife they believe in is their business.
|
Let's say that I have a son. I take him out behind the house and shoot him in the head. I shouldn't be charged with murder because I'm responsible for the well being of my son, not the government? Are you sure that logic holds up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by citadel
Would you allow your child to die because some doctor recommended a treatment you believed was wrong or riddled with failure? What makes Colleen Hauser's or Suzanne Somers' beliefs about cancer treatment so deadly and dangerous? If the government isn't allowed to adjudicate death, they shouldn't be allowed to adjudicate life either.
|
Recently, Jenny McCarthy started a campaign to stop parents from immunizing their children, warning that immunizations carried with them dangerous side effects such as autism. In case you're wondering, no, Jenny McCarthy does not have her MD. She's what you might call a layman in the area of medicine. As you might guess, she didn't have her children vaccinated, and many other people didn't get their children vaccinated, assuming that this celebrity was dissenting to a failure of medical professionals and perhaps even science itself.
It turns out vaccines aren't dangerous and don't cause autism, but they do protect us with something called 'herd immunity'. If enough people in a population are vaccinated against a disease, the community collectively has a herd immunity to that disease, meaning that too many people are immune fro the disease to successfully spread through a population. Do you know what the cost of Jenny McCarthy's unabashed hubris and ignorance was? There was a measles outbreak in 2008. Measles, which is all but wiped out in the United States, saw a sudden spike in cases corresponding directly the the behaviors of Jenny McCarthy's anti-vaccination movement. She and her army of morons set us back set us back decades because they were too stupid to realize that they don't in fact know more about medicine than experts. You can read more about this
here
If my son or daughter were in serious medical danger, I'd have the humility to trust people who know far more than I do about medicine.