This is a very sad story about a lesbian partner who was denied access to her dying partner's hospital room per the usual hospital policy about who is a close relative.
http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/891621.html
***
I totally agree with her that this is a terrible situation and unjust. I think, and know from experience, that this is not just a gay issue (though I think it is then doubly hurtful). Here's a story and then my thoughts.
In the latter 1980's a work colleague who I knew slightly was so terribly mugged, bashed repeatedly in the head, that for a while people thought it was an actual "hit." Turns out it was not, just a violent urban teen who mugged him as he was alone on the train station platform at night, waiting for his live in girlfriend to pick him up. He survived, barely, but was touch and go in a coma for a while. Well, his girlfriend was not allowed in to see him, even though they lived together! His ex-wife had to be called in as only she was allowed into his room.
We all know that children too are kept out of visiting parents, out of fear of spreading bacteria, they say in their hospital policies. (Yeah, like children are the sources of the killing bacteria in hospitals, not.)
So I can totally relate to how dreadfully this lesbian lady was treated and it is totally unjust but as I opined in my title, I think it's an "every person" issue, but recognize the special hurtfulness when it happened to this gay partner.
My suggestion is that hospitals think about accepting a visit permission card that is like a donor card. Just as people can carry a donor card giving advance permission for organ donation (even able to specify which organs are permitted and which are not), I think a hospital visit privileges card should be developed by some health advocate society on the same modeling. Thus each gay partner, in this example, could have had in their wallets this card that says as simply as "If something happens to ..... and.... is in the hospital...... these persons......are in advance requested to be given permission to visit."
What used to be done for good reasons (limit visitors for privacy purposes and for sanitation reasons) is now cruel and out of date. Hospitals however are liability shy (though they don't seem to mind molesters on their actual staffs) so I think this type of an advance permission card could really help. I think gay organizations should pick up on my suggestion and start to carry one, as it can only help and can't hurt if sadly it is needed in such a crisis. It would certainly give you more dignity and raise awareness and hopefully avoid such unjust embarrassments.
Organizations for the elderly might also look at this idea, since many elderly are couples and dear companions without marrying, and it would not be right if one of them was excluded in a such a similar situation.
Showing posts with label victim rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label victim rights. Show all posts
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tough sentences China milk scandal OK with me
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/asia/23milk.html
snip
The tough punishments were the government’s latest effort to deal with a scandal that erupted in September, triggering a global recall of Chinese-made dairy products, shaking consumer confidence and devastating the nation’s fast-growing dairy industry.
But parents of some of the victims protested Thursday afternoon outside the courthouse in Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, saying they were dissatisfied with the verdict.
“I feel sorry for them, but they are just scapegoats,” said Liu Donglin, 28, who said his 21-month-old son suffered from kidney stones after drinking tainted milk formula. “The ones who should take the responsibility are the government, like the quality supervision bureau and the Health Ministry. I spent nearly $3,000 taking care of my son and the government only compensated me with $300.”
***
Read about the sentences in the article, but I want to address this opinion of one of the victims, and also the lawyer for one of the defendants.
No: I disagree. They are not just scapegoats. The people who sold the chemicals to the dairies knowing they were being used to dangerously taint the milk, the milk producers who added the chemical, and the milk processors who found out about this and did nothing are ALL GUILTY and all the first line of culpability.
It is called personal responsibility. If you cannot trust fellow citizens who make money producing food, especially milk for the most helpless, you cannot trust anyone and hence you have no morality or society. Thus they are not scapegoats: they are the primary perpetrators who shirked and violated personal corporate and individual responsibility, all to make money.
The government is not your wet nurse nanny goat to "protect the public" if they are then going easy on those whom the public needs protecting against.
Having said that, I think the government should learn from this how to enhance their own honesty and quality control. All governments, including the great United States, needs to learn that, and I certainly would not be so harsh on the Chinese government who has to learn like everyone else the human cost of neglect and corruption.
Also having said that I think that kindness and compensation needs to be shown toward those who are victimized. How about giving them shares in the companies who offended? Or make the companies sell some assets and give the money to those who were harmed?
China government has a lot of leeway in trying new things. I would suggest a victim crime act where companies who harm their consumers have to compensate the consumers under government supervision, using devices such as selling assets and going out of business and giving the money to those harmed, or staying in business and sharing the profits with those who were harmed (such as giving them shares in the company or setting up trust funds for the children with profits), and other financial instruments. Try to avoid the government hand out slippery slope when it was an industry and personal failure: make those who failed correct themselves and then use their assets and profits to compensate. Hundreds of thousands children harmed? I think there should now be hundreds of thousands new shareholders in the corrected offending companies.
snip
The tough punishments were the government’s latest effort to deal with a scandal that erupted in September, triggering a global recall of Chinese-made dairy products, shaking consumer confidence and devastating the nation’s fast-growing dairy industry.
But parents of some of the victims protested Thursday afternoon outside the courthouse in Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, saying they were dissatisfied with the verdict.
“I feel sorry for them, but they are just scapegoats,” said Liu Donglin, 28, who said his 21-month-old son suffered from kidney stones after drinking tainted milk formula. “The ones who should take the responsibility are the government, like the quality supervision bureau and the Health Ministry. I spent nearly $3,000 taking care of my son and the government only compensated me with $300.”
***
Read about the sentences in the article, but I want to address this opinion of one of the victims, and also the lawyer for one of the defendants.
No: I disagree. They are not just scapegoats. The people who sold the chemicals to the dairies knowing they were being used to dangerously taint the milk, the milk producers who added the chemical, and the milk processors who found out about this and did nothing are ALL GUILTY and all the first line of culpability.
It is called personal responsibility. If you cannot trust fellow citizens who make money producing food, especially milk for the most helpless, you cannot trust anyone and hence you have no morality or society. Thus they are not scapegoats: they are the primary perpetrators who shirked and violated personal corporate and individual responsibility, all to make money.
The government is not your wet nurse nanny goat to "protect the public" if they are then going easy on those whom the public needs protecting against.
Having said that, I think the government should learn from this how to enhance their own honesty and quality control. All governments, including the great United States, needs to learn that, and I certainly would not be so harsh on the Chinese government who has to learn like everyone else the human cost of neglect and corruption.
Also having said that I think that kindness and compensation needs to be shown toward those who are victimized. How about giving them shares in the companies who offended? Or make the companies sell some assets and give the money to those who were harmed?
China government has a lot of leeway in trying new things. I would suggest a victim crime act where companies who harm their consumers have to compensate the consumers under government supervision, using devices such as selling assets and going out of business and giving the money to those harmed, or staying in business and sharing the profits with those who were harmed (such as giving them shares in the company or setting up trust funds for the children with profits), and other financial instruments. Try to avoid the government hand out slippery slope when it was an industry and personal failure: make those who failed correct themselves and then use their assets and profits to compensate. Hundreds of thousands children harmed? I think there should now be hundreds of thousands new shareholders in the corrected offending companies.
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