Unassisted brake repair. Supportive comments only. No scaremongering.
Sounds stupid, right?
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]As a baby struggled, suffered and died, her mother was receiving encouragement to avoid medical assistance.[/pullquote]
What conclusions could we draw about an internet forum with that description?
- The people who created the forum have no interest is hearing anything other than what they already believe.
- The people who created and use the forum understand that the evidence against their choice is very persuasive, so they won’t allow anyone to present it.
- The people who created and use the forum know that their choice is very dangerous and that the truth about it is scary.
- The people who use the forum have doubts about their decision, so they are anxious for “support.”
- The people who use the forum want to promote their choice and therefore have to suppress the truth about the dangers of their choice.
- The people who created and use the forum lack the most basic knowledge about brakes and have convinced themselves that nothing can go wrong if they do it themselves.
Simply put, the people who created and use the forum know that their choice is dangerous and unsupported by evidence, but are looking for those who will cheer them on as they blithely risk their lives and those of anyone who drives with them.
How about an Internet forum for women who choose unassisted childbirth?
Yesterday I wrote about the response of freebirth advocates to a report of baby who was stillborn — dead for days before her birth — because her mother was committed to unassisted childbirth despite multiple risks factors and multiple signs of serious infection and fetal distress. As the baby struggled, suffered and died, the mother was receiving support from an unassisted birth Facebook group encouraging her to avoid medical assistance.
Birth attendant Sarah Tuck defended both the mother and the group.
Perhaps she wanted to get support and not be burned at the stake for choosing autonomous birth. We need safe groups for birth support …
Here’s my question: are women entitled to safe spaces for encouraging each other to risk their babies lives?
You might argue that since a woman has a right to control her own body prior to birth and has no legal obligation to consider the impact on the fetus, there is nothing wrong with constructing a safe space to support her.
How about when we are talking about medical neglect of babies after birth?
Should there be safe spaces for mothers to encourage each other in refusing vaccination and refusing medical care for the inevitable cases of pertussis?
Shayla Cherry was looking for praise when she posted about her toddler’s near death from whooping cough.
One week in and my son’s cough was only getting worse. We were up all night as he began coughing every hour, on the hour. He developed a sharp, desperate inhale; a characteristic whoop every mother hopes to never hear. I began researching pertussis with a sinking heart. Little did I know, we were in for a long and exhausting winter.
The next month was spent indoors as whooping cough tore through our home. Our days were filled with movies, cuddled together in our cozy haze. Sometimes when the coughing woke him at night, he was so exhausted that he’d fall back to sleep without nursing…
On our bed propped on an incline, we slept in fifty-minute bursts. We welcomed play at 2am in the dim hallway light when a coughing fit left him wide awake.
Is she entitled to a safe space to receive support for nearly killing her own child?
How about parents who “treat” their autistic children with bleach?
Why do they do it? Because a quack declared that autism is caused by parasites and that ingesting bleach and bleach enemas can kill those parasites. The following was posted in a Facebook group that had thousands of members dedicated to treating autism with bleach.
Hi everyone I NEED HELP!
My daughter is 7 years old been on cd [chlorine dioxide: bleach] for 4.5 months and began her third pp [parasite protocol] this month. A week ago I began double dosing because she hits her head and gets irritated when her little sister speaks loudly, which causes her to want to head butt her.
I did 38 drops a couple of days ago and she seemed fine and my husband, forgetting, gave her 36 drops on the first day of pp. So yesterday I did 38 drops and she kept going to bathroom and refused to eat. I was a little concerned when she didn’t want to finish her lunch and kept and eye on her.
When dinner time came, I have her mebendazole [anti-parasite medication] she started gagging so I gave her some almond milk and had her sit on the couch. After 5 minutes I gave her her late bite of dinner and not even a minute passed when she threw everything up …
This is the worst kind of medical child abuse imaginable and sadly her mother was abusing her not because she doesn’t care about her but because she does. Is she entitled to a safe space to receive support for her torture of her child?
There are no easy answers to these questions. Free speech is a critical right and we do not want to interfere with that right.
On the other hand, there is no right to subject your child to medical abuse and neglect or to hide evidence of it. There is no right to maintain ignorance. There is no right to be sheltered from criticism. Safe spaces like unassisted birth groups, anti-vax groups and autism “treatment” groups are designed to allow parents to hide medical abuse and neglect, receive support for it, maintain their ignorance and continue torturing their children.
How should we deal with them?
