Being Pro-Aboriginal outweighs being Pro-science

Vincent J. Curtis

29 Nov 2015

RE:  Mom Regrets daughter’s chemo treatment.  The Hamilton Spectator, Nov 28, 2015, p A1

The story at reference contains a classic example of a clash of liberal pieties.  On the one hand, liberals boast of their progressive views on science, modernity, and of the need to keep up with the times.  Liberals condemn conservatives for being “anti-science” and otherwise backward whenever a conservative expresses skepticism about global warming, points out weaknesses in the theory of evolution, doubts the robustness of “evidence-based” decision making, or is leery of the testimony of alleged “experts.”

On the other hand, the liberal holds that everyone who is not a conservative white male is special.  Such as Aboriginals.

The story is a sympathetic portrayal of the feelings that an Aboriginal mother had about abandoning “traditional” Aboriginal treatments for cancer for chemotherapy in accordance with modern, scientific medicine.

Ontario Family Court Justice Gethin Edward gave the mother the right to treat her daughter’s cancer with “traditional healing”, but she later gave in under pressure from provincial officials.  “They weren’t satisfied with Judge Edward’s decision so I felt kind of coerced and I caved and I really regret the decision,” the mother was quoted as saying.

The result is that Ontario’s Ministry of Health gave Six Nations $75,000 to “find ways…to harmonize traditional healing and Western medicine.”  (How witchcraft was going to be harmonized with modern, scientific medicine was left unsaid, but it costs $75,000.)

Here we see the extreme solicitousness of liberals towards those whom they regard with condescension, without reference to the liberal position on science.  There is no science at all behind “traditional” Aboriginal “medicine” in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and if the parents were Irish they would have charged with child abuse for preferring medicine men to medical doctors.  But to the liberal mind, Aboriginals are special and the rigors of scientific thinking cannot be expected to apply to them.

To be fair, a perfectly conservative interpretation of Justice Edward’s decision would be to let those whom liberals treat with condescension stew in their own juice.

Liberals think conservatives are evil because conservatives do not agree with the chop-logic of liberal thinking.  Liberals are no friend of the daughter.

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