A baby cries in an NICU.
A woman turns to me with a half smile. "If the baby's mother was addicted to crack, I would feel okay about him dying."
Pausing I look from the puny baby writhing in his isolette. An IV pokes out of his head. Tubes and wires cover his two pound frame. The oscillator vigorously shakes him.
This is a hard life for anyone and this baby has been an NICU patient for just three days. The anguish of life support is all he knows today ... yesterday ... the day before. Before that he was safe in his mother's womb dreaming of suckling at his mother's breast.
"What if his mother was a lawyer or a librarian? Would it be okay then if he died?" I look to the woman with a sad smile reflected straight from my even sadder eyes.
She does not acknowledge that she's offended me, but does try to clarify. "Babies die and it seems to happen to the nicest people. That is the tragedy."
I point to three other babies in the same row as Baby X. "From here they all look the same."
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Does it Make a Difference?
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2 comments:
Love hearing about your kidlets. It has been a long time coming.
BB
I've also witnessed how some people tend to acknowledge babies as a parent's possession. As if the parent's are deserving or undeserving. Leaves me shaking my head all the time.
Another off the wall comment I hear when hearing news of a small child killed tragically: "Do they have other children at home?" As if that will make everything ok because there are others. Hmmmph!
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