Never read the comments

 I’ve been obsessive over the Archie Battersbee case. It’s not the actual story, so much, as people’s reactions to it.

In a world where our philosophy of life no longer has a philosophy of death, where hospitals are stretched to breaking point, medicine compartmentalises a person by organ, rather than treating them holistically but can also do things that probably should be impossible, cases like this are inevitable. The parents have used the courts because the relationship with the hospital has broken down. If you’ve ever had a loved one in hospital then you will know how tenuous the relationship is in the first place. So many things go unexplained. I still laugh at the time when I was sitting with my dad waiting for him to be admitted to a cardiac ward (not unusual) and a nurse walked in and without saying a single word put a thermometer in his ear and walked out again. I laugh because I was shocked at the lack of communication. I can only imagine how much less has been said to this boy’s parents. Especially as they have to talk about death, which goes against everything they stand for. 

I know that newspaper editors are torn. The story is getting read. It’s doing very well for them in terms of numbers but they know that’s not helping. There’s  no serious discussion of the issues. They can only ‘report’ what was said and there are strict rules on reporting suicide so that the word ligature can be reframed as an online challenge and switching off a machine of a brain dead child is reported as ‘planned execution of a disabled person.’

The courts need to be available because hospitals do sometimes get things wrong. We all do. But when the majority of people agree there comes a time when you might just have to accept the facts. All this back and forth is just causing whiplash. 

But what has fascinated me more than anything are the Facebook comments. Interestingly, there are no comments when the articles are posted on Twitter (although Twitter doesn’t need a news article to say what it thinks) The comments on the newspapers websites are few but bizarre. (I can’t get a doctors appointment. Can anyone advise me what to do about my piles) However, all human life is on Facebook.

Every opinion is laid bare. The juxtaposition of those who believe in ‘mirakuls’ (some words are difficult to spell) with those who comment, “And we feed paedos in prison,” is rife. There’s a tribal nature to the comments. People are forced to pick a side, so that everything they write sounds heartless.  People who can’t take a side feel forced to comment, “Unusually for me I have no opinion on whether the machines should be turned off.” God is mentioned often, which doesn’t surprise me, as one of the main function of the church is to help us deal with death and give a philosophy on the subject. However, even God can’t make up his mind on this one. They blame the newspaper for writing the story that they are enjoying so much they must comment on it. 

There are conversations that need to be had about life and death and the ethics of preserving life where there is no hope of recovery but these should be separate to a family’s personal grief. 

As this is all very depressing I’m going to illustrate today’s blog with a sunflower.