So I guess you will understand why this news - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_homeopathic_death that i first read in The Times Of India this morning has been hounding me all day long.
It is about an India-born Australian couple who let their 9-month old daughter die of acute eczema, because they refused to treat her with conventional medicine, and kept giving her homeopathy. I am a very big fan of homeopathy. I swear by my homeopathic doctor and trust her enormously. And I would use it, for sure, if Ravi was to get ill.
However, it was obvious that it did not work in this little girl's case. But the parents continued, even after her hair turned white, even after she got weaker and weaker, even after an infection started eating at her cornea...
I wonder how could they wake up every morning and see their baby in so much pain (she had to be given morphine in the hospital!). How could they watch her slowly fade away? How could they look in these big innocent eyes and keep on stubbornly feeding her something which obviously was not working.
Everyone makes mistakes. But a mistake that lasted for so many months, a suffering that went on and on pointlessly... I wonder how a family member, a neighbour or a friend did not make them see reason! I wonder how this mother did not go insane seeing her child in so much pain?
Not only I am happy they are going to prison, but I really feel it is not enough!
Children do not ask to be born in this world. They are an expression of OUR desire, of our love for another human being. For months, years, we are their universe. They live through and for us. They have no other vehicle than us to express their feelings and needs. They have no one else to make sure they are loved and healthy. We should look after them well not just because we love them, but because it is our responsibility and there is no scope for error with someone so small and fragile.
