Nightmarish industrial atrocities in our practices surrounding illness and dying are how shielded many of us are about the reality of it. Many of us think with the right medical care one will overcome their illness or they can just “fight it” when usually the ill person is blowing through tons of medical bills and isn’t giving herself a pleasurable experience. A government funded home hospice would reduce medical costs across the board and make the experience of dying more comforting (I for one would rather die at home then in a hospital). I think when I loved one in my family is dying and I am in the position to make a responsible decision I would like them in their final stages to be at home rather than in a hospital bed where many other strangers have died. It seems that these industrial atrocities could be combated through popular opinion if people were educated on the matter. However the people holding the strings like Monsanto, Tyson, and Medical insurers don’t want these alternatives passed in congress because it would be a set-back for their industry and they would lose a lot of money and their prestige.
John,
ReplyDeleteI think you talk about a few different things here that refer to some of the topics we covered in class and probably one of the biggest. I like how at the end of your post you start talking a bit about specifics in contrast to the beginning when you kind of show what you learned over the course of the unit. I think the best line you had in your post is when you say "Many of us think with the right medical care one will overcome their illness or they can just “fight it” when usually the ill person is blowing through tons of medical bills and isn’t giving herself a pleasurable experience." Because it is something that I agree with a lot and it is really well said. Something I think you could have done which many people including myself could have done was refer to a document or something we watched in class. All in all interesting.
We now know many of the problems surrounding how illness and death is treated and thought of in our country, and in the world to some extent. The question is, how do we start to change these 'nightmarish industrial atrocities'?
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