Not sure why anyone would think this is anything but The Guardian using service flight from a rural area as an excuse to push their agitprop [1], reliable like a clockwork. They are the left-wing version of The Daily Mail who never let a good crisis go to waste to push partisan propaganda.
A town of 9000 still has a labor and delivery unit? Where I grew up (rural Canada, near municipalities roughly the same size as this) the only hospital that delivered was in the nearby city that had a population of 100k. Depending on where you lived, it was a 50 mile drive, and this was not considered all that unreasonable by locals.
This seems more like the story of a hospital unit that needed to find a reason to shut down their dwindling L&D unit to cut costs, so they cite a hot topic and get press on it to save face...
According to Wikipedia, Sandpoint does draw from the surrounding area, at least commercially.
And yet this is from the featured article:
The hospital’s statement also said that the closure comes as the number of deliveries at Bonner continues to decline, with only 265 babies delivered last year and fewer than 10 pediatric patients admitted
How do you go about creating the future you wish for? By teaching faith, righteousness, agency, and responsibility? Or by force of law and violence?
If the former, you need to reach out to "those murderers" in a way they will understand and wish to learn more.
If the latter, then you're on the path to "purifying" a nation, which is extremely dangerous to the values of democracy, freedom, and self-determination. Putin is trying to do that to Russia AFAICT.
Murder only applies to sentient beings. Abortion almost never kills anything more complicated than a frog, and for the exceptions, it's always due to medical complications.
Sure, it has "potential", but I could "potentially" be a billionaire one day, and it still wouldn't make sense to tax me like Zuckerberg right now.
A few holes in that argument, for the sake of intellectual honesty:
> Murder only applies to sentient beings.
Even if we accept that definition, it's not limited to "currently sentient". It is also murder to kill someone whose brain isn't functioning right now but who is likely to regain "sentience".
> Abortion almost never kills anything more complicated than a frog
The difference between a human being and a frog is in the DNA, and it's there from day 1. Not everything can be judged by external appearance.
> Sure, it has "potential", but I could "potentially" be a billionaire one day
This potential is more like the potential that you might live to be a senior citizen, not the remote chance that you might be a billionaire.
(And of course this is downvoted by people who can't stand real discussion of the topic.)
> Even if we accept that definition, it's not limited to "currently sentient". It is also murder to kill someone whose brain isn't functioning right now but who is likely to regain "sentience".
Interesting, but this has holes, too. After all, at a certain point in a coma, we conclude that euthanasia may be ethical, even if they might still wake up.
> The difference between a human being and a frog is in the DNA, and it's there from day 1. Not everything can be judged by external appearance.
DNA is a blueprint for an organism, not an actual organism. If DNA alone was relevant, we'd have to revive the sin of onanism. The complexity of the actual fetus is what's relevant, not DNA.
(Side note: DNA overlaps more than you'd think, actually. Frogs and humans share 90% DNA. It's even higher for common warm-blooded livestock we routinely kill and eat.)
> This potential is more like the potential that you might live to be a senior citizen, not the remote chance that you might be a billionaire.
Irrelevant. I could have swapped billionaire with millionaire (or thousand-aire), and the point remains that we don't tax people based on their hypothetical future tax bracket.
> (And of course this is downvoted by people who can't stand real discussion of the topic.)
Well, I didn't downvote you, but I find the endless refusal to concede the biology of early fetuses means they're not human yet kind of tiring. At least the pro-choice faction concedes that late-stage abortion, when the fetus is practically human, should only be reserved for medical danger and unviability.
If a 9000 resident village has its own labor and delivery unit, then perhaps with one doctor only. If the doctor decided to move then of course they would have to shut it down. But it’s not as dramatic as The Guardian tried to make.
That's an awfully leading headline. Pretty sure this is the real cause:
> The hospital’s statement also said that the closure comes as the number of deliveries at Bonner continues to decline, with only 265 babies delivered last year and fewer than 10 pediatric patients admitted.
Maintaining a L&D wing is expensive. If you don't have enough business to make it worth it, makes sense to cut it.
This, pediatric and maternity wards are closing en masse in China.
Its not because of any laws, its simply because of collapsing fertility rates.
The rural doctors generally want to make an escape for the cities with higher pay and greater career potential, but want a convenient excuse to ditch their patients, what better virtuous excuse than this?
There's also a midwife service that will deliver your baby at home.
Giving birth doesn't necessarily require medical intervention. When it will, it's sometimes known ahead of time. Cesarean Section is often a scheduled surgery, not an emergency surgery.
A search suggests C-section deliveries have risen to an alarming 32 percent of US deliveries but only 17 percent of deliveries are an emergency C-section. The rest are scheduled.
18 comments
[ 26.9 ms ] story [ 1057 ms ] thread[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/agitprop
This seems more like the story of a hospital unit that needed to find a reason to shut down their dwindling L&D unit to cut costs, so they cite a hot topic and get press on it to save face...
And yet this is from the featured article:
The hospital’s statement also said that the closure comes as the number of deliveries at Bonner continues to decline, with only 265 babies delivered last year and fewer than 10 pediatric patients admitted
There's no labor and delivery hospital in this city. It's difficult and resource intensive.
If the former, you need to reach out to "those murderers" in a way they will understand and wish to learn more.
If the latter, then you're on the path to "purifying" a nation, which is extremely dangerous to the values of democracy, freedom, and self-determination. Putin is trying to do that to Russia AFAICT.
Or do you see another path?
Sure, it has "potential", but I could "potentially" be a billionaire one day, and it still wouldn't make sense to tax me like Zuckerberg right now.
> Murder only applies to sentient beings.
Even if we accept that definition, it's not limited to "currently sentient". It is also murder to kill someone whose brain isn't functioning right now but who is likely to regain "sentience".
> Abortion almost never kills anything more complicated than a frog
The difference between a human being and a frog is in the DNA, and it's there from day 1. Not everything can be judged by external appearance.
> Sure, it has "potential", but I could "potentially" be a billionaire one day
This potential is more like the potential that you might live to be a senior citizen, not the remote chance that you might be a billionaire.
(And of course this is downvoted by people who can't stand real discussion of the topic.)
Interesting, but this has holes, too. After all, at a certain point in a coma, we conclude that euthanasia may be ethical, even if they might still wake up.
> The difference between a human being and a frog is in the DNA, and it's there from day 1. Not everything can be judged by external appearance.
DNA is a blueprint for an organism, not an actual organism. If DNA alone was relevant, we'd have to revive the sin of onanism. The complexity of the actual fetus is what's relevant, not DNA.
(Side note: DNA overlaps more than you'd think, actually. Frogs and humans share 90% DNA. It's even higher for common warm-blooded livestock we routinely kill and eat.)
> This potential is more like the potential that you might live to be a senior citizen, not the remote chance that you might be a billionaire.
Irrelevant. I could have swapped billionaire with millionaire (or thousand-aire), and the point remains that we don't tax people based on their hypothetical future tax bracket.
> (And of course this is downvoted by people who can't stand real discussion of the topic.)
Well, I didn't downvote you, but I find the endless refusal to concede the biology of early fetuses means they're not human yet kind of tiring. At least the pro-choice faction concedes that late-stage abortion, when the fetus is practically human, should only be reserved for medical danger and unviability.
> The hospital’s statement also said that the closure comes as the number of deliveries at Bonner continues to decline, with only 265 babies delivered last year and fewer than 10 pediatric patients admitted.
Maintaining a L&D wing is expensive. If you don't have enough business to make it worth it, makes sense to cut it.
The rural doctors generally want to make an escape for the cities with higher pay and greater career potential, but want a convenient excuse to ditch their patients, what better virtuous excuse than this?
Giving birth doesn't necessarily require medical intervention. When it will, it's sometimes known ahead of time. Cesarean Section is often a scheduled surgery, not an emergency surgery.
A search suggests C-section deliveries have risen to an alarming 32 percent of US deliveries but only 17 percent of deliveries are an emergency C-section. The rest are scheduled.