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Southland Times
March 12, 2002
Taking today's moral high ground
by Penny Jamieson
One
of the wonderful aspects of living in the present is that we are always
right, Anglican Bishop of Dunedin,
Penny Jamieson writes.
It has been distressing for us all to watch, and in some cases be close to,
parents who have been revisiting the death of a child, whether born or
unborn, whose heart was retained by Greenlane Hospital to assist in
identifying and treating infant heart disease.
Set against the high standards of patient information and consent that has
been established since the Cartwright inquiry in the late 1980s, the practice
of removing, without the consent of their parents, the hearts of children who
have died seems nothing short of sacrilegious.
The fact that these hearts have assisted in preserving the lives of other
babies impacts little on the sense of outrage. We have little sympathy these
days for institutions, which we previously held in high regard, when they are
deemed to have exploited the privileges which that regard endowed them with.
We all, and especially those who are most immediately concerned, feel the
trust we had placed in those institutions has been abused. In many ways a set
of events like this seems like an unwanted intrusion from a past generation
into the present -- almost as if we had suddenly found ourselves boiling the
copper in the laundry again.
We are astonished and we are appalled. And we react strongly. There have been
some very strong condemnations of the practice, and almost a sense of moral
panic in the air as people have rushed to make their 0800 calls and infant
heart surgery is suspended while the calls are dealt with.
Perhaps, we make these strong judgements on history so as to reinforce the
values that guide our lives at the present. In a time when all traditional
values are under scrutiny, there is perhaps an underlying public need to
grasp with some clarity at some values.
We need to know that even if doctors cannot save our babies, the bodies of
our babies will be honoured. And we express this value by our abhorrence of
the practice of doing otherwise.
It happens often. Perhaps the moral panic that Lynley Hood has identified as
a factor in the conviction of Peter Ellis in the Christchurch Civic Creche
child abuse case was an over-strong reaction to our unease about some of the
ways in which we have made childhood an opportunity for business.
Maybe the same observation could be made about the strength of the outpouring
of unease about comments made by the Governor-General of Australia --
ill-judged, and reeking of another age as they were.
In all of these cases our unease has been well fuelled by an eager and
somewhat prurient media. I wonder, as values continue to shift through each
new generation, how history will judge us.
Our grandchildren may well have the compassion to understand that we meant
well, but they will doubtless have difficulty in approving much of what
passes for regular practice at this time.
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