Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Smart or dumb?


Like most people (in the UK) I have been following the Ashya King story as it's been unravelling in the media these last few days, and like many people, I suspect something more than a lack of a favoured treatment is playing out here. The decision today to reunite the parents with their sick child is almost certainly a pragmatic one based on current circumstances but since these circumstances were created by the parents themselves against the advice of medical professionals I can't decide whether these people are incredibly stupid or really clever. On the one hand they are Jehovah's Witnesses and whilst this fact says nothing about how much they love their child it does say something about how gullible and prone to believing nonsense they are, particularly when it comes to shunning life saving medical treatment. On the other hand I would imagine that, as a parent, when you're at wits end and desperate to find something that might help your dying child, then causing a huge media storm and publicising your plight to hundreds of millions of potentially sympathetic parents around the world is a pretty clever social media strategy for helping to get what you want.

I'm sure parents the world over wonder to what lengths they would go if faced with this dilemma, I certainly do! Anyway, regardless of any misguided motives and political fall-out, I wish this little boy well and hope he gets whatever sensible treatment he needs, there but for the grace of Nick Clegg etc..

5 comments:

A Heron's View said...

I understand that the reason Ashya was removed from the UK was that his parents are to take him for proton beam treatment.
Is it available in Spain ?

Steve Borthwick said...

HV, Apparently the treatment is available in the Czech Republic and the family needed to get a referral from either the UK or Spain (I suspect the Mother has Spanish links) Doctors here are saying this treatment is unlikely to make much difference as the kid has an 80/90% chance of survival after an earlier operation anyway. So why such high drama was needed to get this referral is unclear to me, hence this post. It's not clear yet if the doctors in Spain agree to the treatment either.

Chairman Bill said...

Must admit I had the same thoughts. The words Jehova's Witness were enough to raise my doubts, and what better way of getting funds for expensive treatment than by orchestrating a media storm, a Twitter torrent and some FaceBook fury.

But there again, I'm a terminal cynic.

Steve Borthwick said...

CB, it's grounds for reasonable doubt IMO.

Chairman Bill said...

The outraged Daily Mail Tendency can always be relied upon to have a go at the NHS, police, you name it...