Thursday, May 18, 2006

So, who's responsible?

Six years of stress and distress -- for the woman, her family, the doctors, the hospital and God only knows who else, as the ripples from this kind of thing widen and widen beyond anyone's knowledge.

But I'm sure he sleeps soundly, knowing that he has expressed his individuality fully and has acted on his well-known sense of honour.

Story here.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Urgh. The initial event was horrible, the on-going ramifications are horrible, Juliam McGuaran is horrible. How does this help anyone, this dragging it out, and muck-racking, and awfulness?

Ampersand Duck said...

Ditto.

I hve nothing useful or original to say on this, but then, neither do they. Despicable.

Melly` said...

Absolutely horrendous. Those poor people.

Sleep soundly Pavlov - I hope the bastard has nightmares for months.

tigtog said...

Word, Melly.

What a shit McGauran is.

Matthew da Silva said...

I guess right-to-lifers rate pretty low for readers of your blog, KG. Of course, since we're all perfectly hale and hearty we are best qualified to decide what happens to an unborn foetus that/who is not.

I'm really not sure that I totally agree with all the views expressed here. Can we just talk about nuclear power, instead? That would be much less contentious.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Sorry Dean, not biting except to say that my views on abortion are unlikely to change, as are my views on opportunist politicians, and in the meantime it's probably not good form in 2006 for a male commenter to start suggesting what ought or ought not to be on a female blogger's blog. I believe it's also bad form to address bloggers by any name other than the one on the blog.

If you're after an abortion stoush, they have them over at Larvatus Prodeo on a regular basis. They're usually all-male discussions except for the occasional intervention by some weary woman exasperated beyond endurance.

Melly` said...

(If you delete this pavlov I understand)

Dean - why dont you tell us about all your experiences with being pregnant and raising children? Do tell us about raising people who will NEVER leave the welfare system... do tell us how you think your life's knowledge can tell women what to do with their bodies.. their ENTIRE LIVES... hey why not just tell us a womans body is simply a vessel?

Tell us how you - as that poor woman.... would of coped with her situation. I would love to hear it. You tell myself and other women - how we are meant to do that. Men love their kids - that is fine. If that is why you chose to be dreadful here... fair enough.I still choose - fook you - you are not a woman, you dont carry the kids and you dont have to do the hard haul... side with some arsewipe that thinks it is ok to dictate to another person what is right or wrong... and you are just being.... utterly ghastly. Senator Julian Macjudge is simply causing an expensive public mischief. Your tax dollars will pay for this investigation.

I hope you think it is well spent. I sure as hell dont.

Matthew da Silva said...

All I said is that I don't know if I totally agree with the views expressed in the comments. That's all. I don't see why you have to take it so seriously. I sure as hell don't agree with the guy, making a point out of it and so on. But sheesh. You guys are out of my league. I'll certainly think twice before posting an off-hand comment in future.

Melly` said...

bollocks Dean - maybe I was being dreadful.

Still interested to see your abortion stance and reasons.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Thing is, Dean, we're women. For women there is no non-serious side to this issue.

I hope this won't morph/degenerate into yet another predictable abortion debate, though. We've all been there again and again. My main concern in this particular case was McGauran's use of the unusually tragic and awful circumstances as an excuse for some opportunistic grandstanding -- grandstanding that has caused the family, the doctors concerned, and the hospital admin (who have, God knows, better things to do ) years and years of anxiety and stress.

Matthew da Silva said...

I agree. I totally agree that he is grandstanding and making a political point out of a difficult, personal situation.

My point was that all posters of comments appear to hold the same view, which was a liberal view.

Personally, I do too. However, I think there needs to be balance in any debate and it gets my hackles up when homogeneity prevails.

I think that it is a very difficult debate. And further, I don't think that women have a monopoly on dedication and committment. Why isn't the father equally to be pitied when the child is born not perfect, incapacitated in some way? I'm lucky. Both my children were born physically sound. And before my separation I spent all my spare time with them. As a father, I can sympathise with the woman involved, and probably would have done the same thing.

But that 'probably' says everything. I just don't know. Life is precious.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Well, I guess this brings us right down to the question of what a blog is -- especially a one-person blog -- and what it's for.

Hmm.

*Thinks*

Okay, here we go. Ahem.

I don't pretend to be providing a forum here for public debate, 'balanced' or otherwise. I don't pretend to hold politically 'balanced', ie neutral, views myself. This blog is not a publicly funded newspaper or broadcaster.

So I think it's unrealistic to expect that great conservative media myth, 'balance', to prevail in a comments thread. Balance between what and what? What I think and what people who disagree with me think? People who radically disagree with me are unlikley to be reading my blog in the first place, apart from anything else.

I think you're applying inappropriate and unrealistic criteria for judgment. Yes it's a fairly serious blog with some fairly serious discussion. But there's no law that says I have to provide oxygen for ideas I'd prefer not to see breathing.