2000-9-15 12:00:00
Speaking of RH negative - that was my mother's blood type and she was warned by her doctor to not have any more children or she and the baby could die. Well, she slipped up and had me, that's one time I'm glad the doctor's advice was bypassed.
Benjamin, I should have guessed you lived in New Mexico. Your description, however, does show the advantage of good attitude for I know there are some who consider parts of your state to be the armpit of the earth. And you're right, even in New York City there are places like Central Park where you can enjoy the beauties of nature.
I have quite a few readers around Santa Fe and Taos. I wouldn't be surprised if you picked up The Immortal around that area. I really enjoyed visiting the Santa Fe area and look forward to returning someday.
I must admire you for driving a taxi in London, Adrian. I think London taxi drivers are probably the best in the world. They also take much better care of their vehicles than in New York. You never see a London taxi with a dent or a scratch.
And Adrian, it looks like the English are smarter than the Americans. They are at least blaming the right people - the politicians - for the problem. Here in America most people think the problem is the big oil companies who make less than 10? a gallon on their product. Here the government makes about 5 times as much or about 50? a gallon with no investment on their part. But I understand that in England the tax is around $4.00 a gallon. I hope our gas taxes do not have to become that high before our people wake up to the real truth in the middle.
Another thing that is scary here in America is that during our last oil crisis we only imported about 33% of our oil, but we presently import around 65% largely thanks to Clinton and others restricting domestic drilling, even though it is more environmentally friendly than the risk of oil spills from foreign oil.
It is interesting to see how easily the people have their focus diverted from the Middle Way.
It is also interesting that that just as the United States was on the verge of using oil as a fuel that there was a big crisis in whale oil. Many feared that we would be doomed to a world without the light of lamps because of the limited supply of whales; talk of price controls, rationing, and restricted whaling abounded. What they lacked was a basic faith in the genius of mankind. Because we are reflections of God, nothing is impossible for us. Even today it will not be long until we have perfected alternative fuels that will end our dependence on oil.
Concerning Mother Teresa, here is my opinion. I think all charities and give-away programs should work around the following principle which has been reduced to a well worn cliche. "Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime."
On the other hand, you cannot take this to the extreme either, there are times that a starving person needs the fish for immediate relief and has no time to learn to catch anything. Sometimes you have to feed him until he has strength - then you can teach him to fish.
This is where I see Mother Teresa missing the Middle Way. She gave away many fish and fed the multitudes a day at a time, but never advanced a program to teach them how to fish - at least not that I know of.
I do think she came close to the Middle way when she first implemented her programs. She had to risk her career and endure the disdain of numerous, jealous male leaders who didn't think a mere nun should head such an enterprise. In initiating what she did, she caused a much needed change of emphasis within the Catholic Church. Such change represented the truth in the Middle.
I didn't get much response concerning the possibility I may be an extremist in delivering our babies without the aid of any doctor or any other person. I hope the group is not afraid of offending me. Actually part of the answer I was looking for is that I did not give you enough information about the situation so you could make an accurate judgment.
Here are a few more pieces of information.
My wife at the time was from England and had a phobia of American hospitals and delivery methods; and I could not have gotten her to a hospital with a crane. I was thus forced to learn to deliver our own children. I found a fireman's manual on emergency delivery and discovered that this little book told us about all you needed to know.
The greatest stress for me, outside of the risk to my wife and child because of childbirth in general, was the fact that if something did go wrong (which can happen at home or the hospital) I may have been charged with something. I received quite a bit of reaming from numerous sources as it was.
As we prepared for home births we discovered:
(1) Statistically worldwide, home births were safer than hospital births.
(2) The doctors are always in a hurry and force the woman to push too soon causing tearing to the mother and damage to the child.
(3) Sometimes they use a suction device that causes permanent damage to the child.
(4) Doctors cut the cord before all the super nutrient blood passes into the baby. This blood is essential to the baby's health.
(5) Doctors would have probably delivered our children by C-section because they were large and the labor was difficult, but if the mother is willing to go through the labor, a large baby can be delivered with no tearing or surgery if she refrains from premature pushing.
(6) Doctors are sometimes sloppy about getting the entire placenta out. Usually this is no problem in a natural birth where there is no rush for quick delivery.
(7) There was greater risk of infection in the hospital.
(8) No hospitals in that day would allow the father in the delivery room and my wife insisted I be there.
(9) If there was a major problem, we could most probably get to a hospital before things became critical.
So after considering all these things, I did not consider it to be far from the middle way of truth to deliver our own children. In fact, the more I learned, the more I saw that normal deliveries were the true extreme.
Harry writes:
I really have no room to talk here as I don't even have any kids and I'm 45! I think when this topic started what came to my mind is really not so much the case that Maryellen brought but that it reminded of cases here in Oklahoma where parents refused care for a child based on their religious beliefs. One instance that I recall was where the child had an appendix problem and the child was not allowed to be treated. The child died. Should a child be allowed to die in this day and age where medical treatment is available? I can't speak for others but I couldn't sit on my hands while my child died from something that was easily treatable. And I think parents that do this should be held accountable for it.
Welcome to the list, Harry.
Question:
So what do you think of his point? Are there times that we must act by force for the good of individuals or groups? If someone is trying to commit suicide should we stop them by force if necessary? Where do we draw the line?
"Adam fell that man might be.
Man is that he might have joy."
The Book of Mormon
Copyright 2000 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved