Participating supporters, supporting the participating supported....
This morning, while our daughter was having her swim lesson, there was a group of folks in rehabilitative care, care givers and receivers,
also using the pool. . . .;
And I happened to be there with my camera; and as it often does, it produced an image that makes me think.
Look
at the faces of the children in the photo. What do they see? What are they learning?
Health-care reform should focus upon supporting an infrastructure within which
we can care for each other (like the folks in the photo) - not upon
who gets euthanized for the good of the collective; or who gets turned into a cash-cow for the benefit of the pharma/medical/insurance syndicate.
But some folks have other ideas:
[Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled,
not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . .
An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).]
