So they tested the kid's bowel movements for drugs and reported the parent for drugs they themselves gave. On the surface, it seems like a "right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing" but such things always going to happen when a system is used for both care and enforcement.
And as the article mentions, the outlawing of abortion in some states has accelerated these problems.
If you sued for mental damage the state for such a thing, would you be able to win?
It says a child was taken from the mum for 5 months, that's an impossible damage, literally to get back to something similar you need another child + 9 months + all the costs associated to having 2 children (and career progression loss).
I feel like most such suits would crash on the shores of immunity doctrines and balancing tests. It's absolutely life-altering and probably lifelong - I don't see any way that such a child wouldn't develop attachment/trust disorders. But any judges who assign responsibility to transparently will be denounced as 'judicial activists'.
Classic "not my problem" case in health care. Clinician 1 gives a typical medication to patient, then their shift ends and they go home. Hours or days later, clinician 2 administers a drug test as part of standard process, then their shift ends and they go home. Clinician 3 then reviews this positive test result and reports it to authorities as part of a mandatory reporting program. Nobody acts as a patient advocate and reviews the full case file. Everyone just does their one transactional piece and forgets the entire history ten seconds later in favor of doing another transactional thing for another patient.
It feels like today, mothers face increasing danger going into hospitals. The medical professionals have so much power and control over you when you're there, and one mistake can kill you or ruin your life. There really needs to be greater patient protections.
A case study in the banality of evil sadly. Also a perfect example of why care and enforcemrnt should never be mixed, both for its immediate effects and the lasting distrust it will eventually cause.
The state government has too much power to define what a mother can or can't do. It doesn't deserve such power. Using it correctly or not is a whole other consideration.
Because it shows up in the baby's meconium...
That doesn't even get into the second order effects such as mothers then having trouble lactating/nursing.
And beyond that, we should probably question why, statistically, the mothers that have the most children don't use painkillers during childbirth.
> the mothers that have the most children don't use painkillers during childbirth
Maybe because those who have painful births are unlikely to want to go through it again?
That seems The obvious guess. It could definitely be wrong but unless research shows otherwise there doesn’t appear to be an a priori reason to avoid painkillers barring further research.
Why should we question that? The most obvious answer would be that women who have a hard time giving birth are more likely to get painkillers and less likely to want a second child.
So? Are you worried that baby is going to go out and try to score baby heroin? You have to point to some actual negative outcome beyond "the drugs we gave were present".
Why don't mothers with the most children use painkillers?
Having children fundamentally alters your body, making future births easier, generally. The people with the most children tend to be poorerto, and might not be able to afford painkillers. The people with the most children might be religious families who treat women as machines for producing children. Maybe about a million hypotheses.
But we should be studying it! You are right about that. Our health care system under studies the experiences of women.
oh ffs please stop treating every situation like its a binary situation.
EVERYONE has different experiences and issues. some need surgery, some have a 30 min labour and its almost like a luge.
The answer here is not "every one should just suck it up like they used to" its "every situation should be treated based on the data and facts of scientific theory, and adjusted to deal with the different environmental variables"
Yes its more complicated, but the world and the lived experience of it is not black and white.
There's no reason to believe this didn't occur. US medical systems and US drug systems absolutely are the sorts of systems that would fail in this way.
You suggested it was a joke and unlikely, and then said you'd need more evidence. This suggests you are skeptical that the US healthcare system works this way and that you are rejecting the claims of the article.
Anyone with experience with US healthcare would find this story immediately plausible, and the burden of proof is low. It's how Americans would expect the system to operate. Even if they hope it didn't.
Are people in the US really that literal? It's no wonder social media is in such one hell of a mess.
Doesn't anyone realize that the point I was making is that this story is just so bad and terrible that it's almost unbelievable—even by US health standards? In fact it's so bad that it would seem infeasible even in the worst of third world countries.
I say that as someone who has lived and worked in the US for periods and who has relatives living there. Even by my understanding what happened in this story it is so outrageous that people ought to be rioting in the streets over it.
What much of the world finds completely unfathomable about the US is why its citizens—citizens of a supposed first-world country—actually tolerate a health care system that's actually worse than in many third-world ones.
Edit: on further thoughts given that so many (presumably US) posters took umbrage at my comment tells me the situation with the US health care system is even worse that I thought. What beats is why so many couldn't see what I was driving at.
You here to learn why people misunderstood you? Or you here to fight with righteous anger about how it's other people's fault they misunderstood you?
Because you say the former but are acting like the latter.
I agree the healthcare system in the US is unfathomable. We're on the same page there. Maybe don't be a dick about it and we can have a productive chat?
Trouble is this problem has been known about for generations, it was a very old story when I was a kid decades ago—even back then not only US citizens but everyone knew about it. There comes a time when the only responses left are cynicism and annoyance—and of course sympathy for the victims.
And as the article mentions, the outlawing of abortion in some states has accelerated these problems.
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