Robbing Peter
Further to P J Edmondson's letter (NZ Herald, July 4), encouraging the growth of private hospitals to alleviate the burden on state hospitals. Is this a long-term suggestion to privately train staff whilst converting or building more hospitals, or decimate the health service by simply recruiting directly from them?
Whichever way you look at it, more qualified staff are needed. We surely don't want to either dissipate our present health service or aim to rely on wholesale recruitment from overseas, particularly during the present housing crisis.
There is a role for private equity, but not at the expense of our health service.
Therefore, the suggestion of working in tandem has merit, but we would need a very strong and dedicated minister to oversee such a development.
John Norris, Whangamatā.
To pay pedagogy
I agree with advocating for teachers to be paid according to their merit. The only problem I have is, how does one define merit in teaching?
Here are four examples of teachers I have worked with:
Number one is a total dictator in the classroom. He rules with an iron will, has no discipline problems, and achieves good academic results. The students hate him and he tends to sit in isolation in the staff room
Number two teaches at an all-girls boarding school where the girls stand up when he enters the room. He has absolutely no discipline problems. The students settle immediately into task and achieve excellent academic results.
Number three Is relaxed and interacts really well with the students. Their academic results are average but he is heavily involved in extra-curricular activities and hugely popular with the students. He coaches the second XV and produces and directs the school shows for no financial recompense and can't even claim petrol costs.
Number four teaches the slow learner classes. Their academic achievements are nil but they are showing real improvement in their social and general living skills.
Which of these four deserves the highest pay?
David Coddington, Napier.
Sharper sentences
It is an offence for every person who, in a public space, without reasonable excuse, has any knife in his or her possession. This offence carries a maximum of three months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding $2000.
The individuals who carry knives know that these penalties are unlikely to be fully enforced.
Like the UK, stabbings in this country are becoming far too prevalent. There the offence carries a four-year jail sentence and an unlimited fine.
Let's do it before there is another killing.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
State opinions
Sasha Borissenko's opinion piece, "A history of abortion in NZ - and where to now?" (NZ Herald, July 4) made an interesting read. However, like much comment on the subject of Roe v Wade, it presupposes that a recent Supreme Court decision in the USA has relevance for New Zealand. Quite simply, it doesn't.
It is a domestic matter, concerned with the question of the interpretation of the 1789 Constitution and the 14th Amendment of 1868. The case concerned who should have the right to decide on abortion laws, the states or the federal government. The federal government can only do so if the Constitution gives them that right - all other jurisdiction is in the hands of the states.
The Supreme Court has not outlawed abortion or even restricted it. It has held that it is a matter for the states.
This is not relevant to New Zealand and has no bearing whatsoever on abortion law in this country.
Noel Cox, Glenfield.
Viable life
Re: R. Hamilton's snippet (NZ Herald, July 4), labelling all fetuses as human, anyone knowledgeable about medicine and the growth and development of the fetus from a fertilised ova to an infant knows that it isn't that simple - from spontaneous abortions all the way up to stillbirths.
Until the fetus is viable outside the womb, I would say, it's hardly a person. It can't survive outside the womb, for a start. All the decisions are being made on its behalf, most of them unconscious in the first trimester.
It's only in the last trimester that it stands a chance outside the womb - and premature babies are generally a lost cause without modern technology.
Could we please have a debate on this topic without people making assumptions that are not supported by medical evidence?
Wesley Parish, Tauranga.
