Posted by The court trial for Tamara Lovett in the death of her 7-year-old son, Ryan Lovett, began today.
She is charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life and criminal negligence causing death. Lovett chose to treat her son’s strep infection with such herbal remedies as dandelion tea and oil of oregano… The child so sick he had been bedridden for 10 days was never taken to a doctor… Doctors determined that Ryan had meningitis and a strep infection. He also had pneumonia, jaundice and had experienced multiple organ failures.
My first reaction was hell yeah, throw the book at her. I mean who lets their child suffer and die without seeking proper medical attention; especially in Canada where health care is free for all citizens? I probably still think that. But this case raises larger and deeper issues about how our Western societies view homeopathic treatment and herbal medicine (i.e., it is mostly used by hippies and quacks) and where is the line that our legal system uses to judge whether a parent has discharged their duty of care properly.
On the first issue, our society’s near religious zealotry and faith in science, modern medicine, and doctors is problematic. Don’t get me wrong; I firmly believe in all of these. It’s just that doctor and scientists are neither omniscient nor omnipotent but we seem to elevate them to that level. There is so much that we don’t know, it is hubris to the extreme to assume that modern medicine can cure everything. Let us not forget that pretty much all of today’s pharmacology is derived from a natural source. Think penicillin: whoops, I accidentally left a petri dish out, notice that nasty blue/green mold is inhibiting the growth of bacteria and presto… miracle anti-bacterial drug. Ironically, in the case of Ryan Lovett, penicillin probably would have saved his life.
More recently, the star anise, which I use in cooking quite a bit is a key ingredient in anti-influenza medicine Tamiflu and some research points to it being useful in treating malaria that has developed resistance to the current batch of medicines. I admit I’m not a big fan of homeopathic treatments as it does seem a little too much like quackery to me. However, my Chinese side does make me more open-minded to them as there is a rich history of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) which I do sometimes engage in myself. That doesn’t mean I don’t see a real “Western” doctor when I’m sick or don’t believe in modern medicines; only that I’m more open to alternatives.
But how does Western society (and the media) view homeopathy (and by extension, traditional Chinese medicine)? Language usage tells us a lot as reporters on this case refer to it as a debate surrounding “natural remedies versus conventional medicine”. In China, we clearly distinguish between Chinese and Western doctors and medicine. To call it conventional medicine is to basically attach the label that it is standard and common when it is, in fact, a recent and new phenomenon. I am reminded of the professional golfer and two time Master’s champion Bubba Watson commenting on the PGA’s investigation on fellow golfer Vijay Singh for using deer antler spray which contained a banned substance.
“I think we should check [people] for mental problems if they’re taking deer antler spray. Yeah, that’s kind of weird,”
In other words, Bubba is basically saying 1.4bn Chinese are weird and have mental problems. For the sake of full disclosure, I am personally using a limited edition Bubba Watson, neon-pink, Ping Driver these days and actually like him as a golfer. However, his comments are those of an ignorant redneck, an image he actively endorses and panders to. Sadly, I think what he said reflects the attitude of most people in the West, even (and possibly especially) the educated ones.
On the second issue, I am troubled because the creeping encroachment of the nanny state is one of the issues that annoys me the most. Let us start with the basic assumption that the vast majority of parents love their children unconditionally and would do everything in their power to keep them safe and healthy. That’s not always true but in the case of Ryan Lovett, nothing that is reported indicates that the mother had malice; just extremely poor judgement. She will probably be found guilty, just as Jehovah Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions to save their children’s lives have been overruled by the courts.
It is troublesome because who is the government and even the courts to judge on private family affairs? I believe that the bar as to where the “public” can intervene in domestic family affairs has to be set unbelievably high. Currently, the liberal thought of the day is to set the bar actually very low in the interests of “protecting the most vulnerable segment of our society… our children.” Um, no. It’s not our children; it’s my children and the government (mostly via child protective services) and the courts can just piss off unless I’m a doing something really really bad.
We all know of the busy-body holier-than-thou people who like to get involved when a mother spanks her kids going nuts at the supermarket. Here’s some advice, you know the kind you like to dole out ad nauseum and unsolicited to others – don’t. It’s none of your goddamned business if I spank my kids. You can quote all the lousy good parenting book and quack child development psychologists all you want. My own eyes and experience sees we are raising a generation of spoiled, undisciplined, self-centred, narcissists. People comment about how good my kids are all the time (they are older now and one is in university). Heck even the stewardess in business class commented how good my kids were on a Trans-Pacific flight once. I am not above corporal punishment although, like a country declaring war, I believe it should be rare and judiciously used. In my case, virtually never have I resorted to it. But it’s none of the government’s or the annoying know-it-all busybody’s business if I do. The government is hardly a good arbiter of morals and, because it is a large faceless organisation and bureaucracy, prone to huge errors and omissions. You know, like this case about the four year old child who died in government care after being taken away (along with her two siblings) from her mother by child protective services. Does the case officer or her supervisor even get fired let alone go to jail? Of course, not. We only prosecute parents, not our nanny-state big brother. As is so often the case, despite our vastly improved knowledge and technology, our forefathers seem so much wiser and intelligent than we are today. The Romans knew the problems of government intervention more than two millennia ago. Quis custodiet ipsos custode – Who will watch the watchers.
But where is the line between bad luck, poor judgement and criminal negligence? What if I turned the whole argument around. “You went to your doctor and got treatment but it didn’t work. However, you didn’t even try traditional Chinese medicine and your child died so we’re going to put you in jail for criminal negligence.”
Put it another way, for most Chinese, we would do both. We would consult modern “Western” doctors, and if that didn’t work, we would also try “Chinese” doctors and traditional Chinese medicines like Lingzhi mushrooms and Caterpillar Fungus even though they are extremely expensive (I have a bunch even though they cost like US$25 a worm). To us, a Westerner, like Bubba Watson, who wouldn’t even try Chinese medicine based on a pre-conceived bias is actually the one that has mental problems and is kind of weird. But nobody that I know of in the Western world has gone to jail yet for not letting their child take Lingzhi mushrooms after chemotherapy has failed. I guess the morality logic does not work both ways.
Update (24 January 2017): The verdict was handed down yesterday, no surprise. Tamara Lovett was found guilty of criminal negligence resulting in death and also failing to provide the necessaries of life. I probably agree with the assessment and judgement; it is the philosophical and legal implications that I still have trouble with. Justice Kristine Eidsvik stated, “Nor do I accept that she was unaware that her efforts of treatment with her so-called ‘natural’ remedies were not working. She knew he was getting worse yet continued along the same course until it was too late.”
My mother has been clearly out of sorts and ill for the past four months. Three months ago, we went to the doctor and he prescribed the usual cold/flu medicines and did an x-ray. The x-ray showed a lump on a lung which he thought was 90% cancer. Rather than wait three months (one of the big downsides of Canada’s “free” universal public health care system), we paid for private hi-resolution CT Scanning to be sent to a specialist. The results came back negative on cancer (despite the initial diagnoses by the doctor) so she ordered cultured samples for bacterial infections like tuberculosis. That came back negative and we did another CT Scan which is likely to show nothing as well (other than there is “diseasing”) so we will likely end up doing a bronchoscopy biopsy. Three months into this, my mom’s condition remained poor so we finally convinced her to see a Chinese doctor (she’s never done it before and neither has my father so don’t ask me where I get my habits from). After a week and three visits with changing prescriptions for Chinese medicines, she seems to be getting a little better. Three months of the most expensive equipment and training known to western medicine and still no clue. One week of Chinese medicine and we see clear signs of improvement. Cross your fingers. (Postscript: After months and months, the doctors still don’t have a clue what the problem is but have prescribed some powerful steroids that seem to be doing the trick).
So, I ask you once again gentle readers. If the reverse were true in this case and after weeks or months of western doctors not being able to cure her child; should we have sentenced the mother to jail for not trying chinese medicine even though it was clear that western remedies were not working and she continued on the same course? It is irrelevant whether you think homeopathic medicines (and by extension traditional Chinese medicine) work or not. Heck even western medicine doesn’t work all the time. Our court and legal system use the test of a “reasonable man” and, by definition, this should mean you exhaust all possibilities even if you don’t really know because at that point, what have you got to lose?