Presentation: Danny
Premonition
1. What was sometimes as persuasive to Charity as data? Do you share her attitude, have you had a similar experience? Do you think health care providers and public health officers should?
2. Who sent Charity to the border, and why? Should the administration have been held accountable for its immigration policy?
3. What was "the money question"?
4. Why wasn't Charity promoted to top CA public health officer? Is it unethical for politicians to appoint important officials on the basis of considerations other than credentials and competence? How can they be prevented from doing so?
5. What was Charity really doing at her whiteboard?
6. Why did her boss ban her from using the word pandemic?
7. Why did Charity think she'd end up in the White House?
8. What did she like to say about leadership?
Beyond 2-3
1. What kind of "motherhood" did Indiana officially promote in the '20s and '30s?
2. What was every child's right, in Indiana?
3. What dismaying transfer of power did Ada Schweitzer inadvertently facilitate?
4. What led to the "exponential" expansion of the Infant and Child Hygiene division?
5. What did Schweitzer call the Better Baby Contest at the fair?
6. Half of what occurred in California before WWII?
7. What role was played by corporate philanthropies and academics in the promotion of eugenics?
8. What happened in Lincoln, IL?
9. What was Hitler's "bible"?
10. How did California eugenicists re-brand themselves after the war?
DQs
- Is there an appropriate role for the state in promoting or mandating particular approaches to parenting?
- How would you articulate children's rights? Would you, for instance, include a right "to be brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord"? (compare: Indiana child creed, Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Timeline of young people's rights...)
- Were the Suffragists wrong to "link the language of biology and bacteriology"? 35
- Are there enough female pediatricians? What difference does a physician's gender make?
- Is there still a marked division in this country between the "male medical establishment" and women in healthcare? (40)
- Is there any inoffensive way of expressing and defending the impulse to "raise better babies"?
- What do you think of Schweitzer's statement to "a Muncie reformer" (43)?
- How would you caption the photo in Figure 2.1 (46)?
- Was Francis Galton wrong about "talented people" (54)?
- Are you shocked to learn of the "lethal chamber"?
Is there an appropriate role for the state to mandate or promote particular approaches to parenting?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the state should have any role in deciding who gets to have kids, but I think the state should be heavily involved to protect kids that are already born by keeping things like anti-abuse laws and mandatory schooling. I don't believe that parents should have full control over their kids.
I agree with this, I don’t think there should be mandates on amount of children but I think there should be mandates for certain laws preventing abusive parenting. There should also not be laws preventing abortion, and there tends to be a lot of children from women who had no access to abortion that tend to be brought into abusive situations and/or put up for adoption.
Deleteone of the biggest lessons that I am beginning to learn from bioethics in general is that it is vital to advocate for and to promote the idea of indiviudal autonomy and choice. When things become legally enforced to follow certain values when it comes to things like parenting, this is a formula for disaster.
DeleteIs there an inoffensive way of expressing and defending the impulse to "raise better babies"?
ReplyDeleteI think it's relatively easy to do this if you cut out the eugenicist elements of "raising better babies". We shouldn't focus on who gets to have babies, because this just creates more inequality. Rather we should focus on our parenting methods and make sure that we are raising happy and healthy people. I think that this sentiment fits well with progressivism, but when forced sterilization comes into play, then not so much anymore.
When I think of “raising better babies” I would rather think and hope someone would mean being a better parent, rather than trying to make your child “perfect”. Unfortunately, I can imagine a lot of parents trying to make their children in their own image.
Delete-Aidan Haines
DeleteYes, I agree, you have to cut the eugenics out of it. Better babies should mean happy, safe, and healthy children and it should be for all children. Sadly, recent movements encourage “better babies” for the wealthy and/or non foreign babies. Marginalized groups are not included in and often excluded from “ better babies.”
DeleteHow would you articulate children's rights?
ReplyDeleteI think that children's rights should be of utmost importance since they are the most impressionable and unstable people in our society, who have less protections and defense mechanisms. We should recognize that the people who understand them the best and likely hold their best interests (their parents/guardians) should be listened to and sometimes deferred to if the child is incapable of making a decision for themself. However, oftentimes the people closest to children are the ones abusing them under the radar, so we as a society need to be aware and steadfast to disincentivize bad parenting.
The way I would articulate them is a mutual understanding that children are a lot smarter than we give them credit for, and while they aren’t allowed to do certain things for a reason, children should be given valid credit and be treated with respect and a mutual understanding.
DeleteI agree, I think it is important for children to have a say while under the supervision of someone has the child's best interest in mind. I believe that issue becomes fuzzy with the supervision of the child since some people will enforce their values on their child which might not actually serve the interst of the child.
Delete8. What happened in Lincoln, IL?
ReplyDeleteIn Lincoln, IL the One institution fed their incoming patients milk from tubercular cows due to the belief a eugenically strong individuals would be be immune. This resulted 30 to 40 percent annual death rates at One. This was something crazy to read and I had multiple questions. Was it labeled as an experiment? Or a study? Were the patients or their families aware? What demographic were these patients? I understand medicine was not as advanced back then than now but how did no one understand how dangerous this was back then, it’s kind of playing Russian roulette except how would any of these patients be immune to tuberculosis.
9. What was Hitler's "bible"?
ReplyDeleteHitler’s “bible” was Madison Grant’s “The Passing of the Great Race” book. I was not aware that the Nazi eugenics came from America and I’m curious why schools don’t mention that fact. It’s also interesting on how at first California eugenicists were not ashamed of supporting Nazis and their agenda but then tried to rebrand themselves after the war.
What did Schweitzer call the Better Baby Contest at the fair?
ReplyDeleteSchweitzer called the Better Baby Contest at the fair "the contest of eugenics". He believed that these kinds of contests, which focused on idealized genetic traits, dehumanized people and compromised a more compassionate approach to human care.
1. What was sometimes as persuasive to Charity as data? Do you share her attitude, have you had a similar experience? Do you think health care providers and public health officers should?
ReplyDeleteCharity had a feeling that there was something that was occuring, it was said this was just as convincing as evidence. This attitude is very familiar and I actually read a book about this phenomona of the "gut feeling." Blink, by Malcom Gladwell talks about the science of this gut feeling. Malcom talks about how this gut feeling comes to those who have spent endless hours perfecting their craft and I think it is essential that public health officers gain this skill.