Just over a dozen protestors holding signs and placards can be seen outside Starship Children's Hospital on Park Rd. Photo / File
Baby ruling victory for science, common sense
Emotion and strong beliefs, supported by poor quality information, and poor non-medical advice, led to a life-threatening delay for the unnamed baby.
It is a great pity it needed a High Court judge to make not one, but two, legal orders in order for surgery to proceed.
This was a victory for science and common sense — and the baby’s health. It is a pity the team at Starship advocating for the baby’s life-saving surgery were diverted from other essential healthcare work during an immensely busy period.
Let’s hope this case spells the end of unnecessary judicial intervention in healthcare triggered by baseless claims of harm from blood transfusions.
Perhaps Liz Gunn should now pursue a new career writing fiction.
Paul Jamieson, Remuera
Right to life confirmed
The court, by upholding the doctors’ decisions to go ahead with the life-saving operation despite the parents protests, confirms the baby’s “right to life” and with the best possible assistance. Also, that the parents do not have the right to decide their baby’s future if it jeopardises that future. However, what the parents do have is a responsibility to get the best possible assistance.
It appears these parents are a product of our failing education system, based on the American philosophy of “learn a little about a lot”, thereby losing the ability to think clearly, in depth, logically, and deductively. Unfortunately, ideology and anti-anything-not-agreed-with protests are becoming more prevalent.
I McPherson, Birkenhead
Blood transfusion? You can bank on it
Having needed a blood transfusion to save my life following an operation, I find it very difficult to understand the comments coming from ill-informed anti-vaxxers around the use of ordinary blood from the blood bank.
It would be interesting to know what they would do in a life or death situation where a blood transfusion was needed immediately. I’d suggest they’d pretty quickly change their mind.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth
Critical thinking
Whatever the outcome for Baby W after the High Court’s decision to allow life-saving/prolonging surgery to be performed, we can be thankful for one essential thing. This baby’s right to a chance at a better life was ruled more vital than a near certain death via conspiracy theory and misinformation.
Hopefully this decision will be the yardstick for any future attempts by ill-informed parents who believe what garbage they read on social media about how to deal with such critical illnesses.
The most discomforting thing of all is that so many people don’t fact-check any misinformation against peer-reviewed scientific evidence. Most conspiracy theories are the stuff of fantasy started by mischievous agents to see how far they can travel and how many people can be made to believe they are real.
It used to be said that fire was the greatest servant of mankind but the cruellest master. That role seems to have now been taken over by social media. As with double checking the fire’s embers are out before you go to bed, double checking what you read should be mandatory. I have lived by the creed “question everything” for many years. It has served me well. I suggest it is more relevant now than ever.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark
Sentencing joke
Am I the only bewildered person who wonders why the police bother to investigate serious crimes to the point of prosecution?
Daily, the Herald reports court cases involving proven serious offenders who get a mild verbal reprimand from a judge before engaging in a surreal lotto draw in which sentencing years are deleted. The offender then laughs and often walks out of the court to be amongst us again or suffers an even much easier equivalent of a Covid lockdown called home detention. Labour promised to reduce the prison population and this sentencing joke policy has achieved it but at what expense to society?
Bill Evans, Freemans Bay
Speedy resolution
In the past year speed cameras have caught over 360,000 drivers driving above the speed limit. Many more will have broken the speed limit without being caught. Every one of those drivers has shown contempt for the law and for their fellow citizens. There are no statistics for red light runners or other forms of dangerous and potentially life-threatening behaviour. There are statistics for the road toll, currently over 300 this year. Most, if not all of these road deaths stem from drivers failing to follow the laws of the road. As with any other form of crime, the perpetrators believe they will not be caught and are not deterred by penalties. We do not see opposition politicians (Luxon and Seymour) taking photo opportunities next to mangled cars and calling out the government for being soft on road crime.Maybe if everyone obeyed the laws of the road it would free up police so they can spend their time working on the sorts of cases which have recently filled the headlines.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale
Harry and Meghan
I would love to comment on Meghan Markle saying that she thought that there was the face shown in public and then the one behind closed doors where she could relax. Apparently with William and Kate, what you see, is what you get — they are not two-faced. What a telling statement about Markle.
S Hansen, Hastings
Public broadcasts
If National had not destroyed the non-commercial TVNZ7 10 years ago, it is possible Labour would not now be pursuing the merger of TVNZ and RNZ. TVNZ7 was replaced by the TVNZ+1 channel which merely repeats TV1 on an hour delay. In an email to me, National’s broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee claimed the +1 channel as a “valuable public service” — in an era when the same programmes are available free to view on demand at any time. More “valuable” than the channel it replaced with its hour-long commercial-free news, and its many programmes about politics, law, media, history, arts, and science etc — all of which have disappeared?
Now National have vowed to reverse the proposed merger without giving it a chance to succeed and at any cost, meaning every cent spent on its development will be wilfully wasted. There is a pattern here — one of destructive antipathy towards any attempt to improve, strengthen or revitalise public media.
Roy Ward, Freemans Bay
Childcare closures
So in an effort to reduce costs there will be a vote next week around closing 10 Auckland Council-owned community-based early childhood centres known as Kauri Kids. These centres provide a local sanctuary for families as they create a sense of belonging enabling infants and young children to attend together. They provide flexible hours at ‘not for profit’ fees.
All children have a right to attend a quality early childhood service so the fear is if these centres become corporatised their accessibility, affordability and quality is compromised. As a guide we can look to countries like Denmark which has removed the option of treating early childhood services as commercial enterprises with children as a commodity to profit from. A thriving community provides choices. So please keep these community-based options open for families.
Charlotte Robertson, North Shore
The woman was shaken by the incident.