Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Nature of Science

As alluded to in my last post, I do a fair bit of lurking at a site called Science Based Medicine. It's not generally the posts I'm terribly interested in, it's the comments that inevitably follow and the debates that go on that pique my interest. I really enjoy learning how other people think and make judgements.

One thing that comes up over and over again on that site is this theme: those who choose to question/delay/selectively vax, those who choose alternative medicine, and (now) those who choose to natural birth or homebirth are uneducated and making decisions not based in science. As you can probably infer, I take a bit of issue with this broad generalization. As I see it, science, in and of itself, does not dictate which choices should and should not be made. Science is a tool, a process, for gathering information in order to inform the decision that is to be made. Science is amoral - real life, and the application of science, is not amoral, and as such, when making a decision (especially about medicine and intervention), the realities of life and the individual values of those involved, as well as the science, play a part in the eventual decision that is made. For instance, say someone has a terminal condition, and science has shown that there is a treatment that will prolong life by several months, but this treatment also has the side effect of causing significant pain - is it anti-science for an individual to choose not to have the treatment? Is it to be inferred that if the person chooses to decline the treatment, he or she is uneducated?

As someone who is not religious in any way, shape, form, or manner, the amount of smugness that I have observed on websites like Science Based Medicine bothers me, as it seems to come from as much dogmatic fervor as might be observed in a fundamentalist religion: those who do what we do are good, everyone else is silly/stupid/damned. Science is not about being close-minded or entertaining only one theory - it is about exploring the possibilities and gathering as much information as possible.

Making a decision that is not in the mainstream of medicine is not necessarily a rejection of science. And to suggest that different people cannot look at the science and still come to different conclusions about how to treat in medicine betrays the ignorance of the one making that assertion, not the one making the differing decision.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A Good Smiting

I'll admit it. I experience schadenfreude from time to time. Now is one of those times.

Extremely vocal (and generally incredibly illogical) anti-homebirth advocate Dr. Amy Tuteur has found a new pulpit from which to preach her ad hominem attacks and general mouth-foaming about those poor, uneducated, foolhardy, and misguided women who eschew all that modern medicine has to offer and choose to have unmedicated or even *gasp* homebirths. The woman who generally employs a post-and-run approach to birth issues in a variety of online forms (or a delete-all-those-who-point-out-the-lack-of-science/evidence-behind-my-thinking on her own blog) has found a new home at Science Based Medicine.

*snerk, snort*

While Dr. Amy started off with a post that had the regulars at SBM nodding their head in agreement, it has only taken three posts for the the zealotry and lack-of-research that is Dr. Amy to have presented itself. In her post today, Dr. Amy begins by trying to convince the SBM readership that "natural childbirth was invented by a man to convince middle and upper class women that childbirth pain is in their minds, thereby encouraging them to have more children."

Um, yeah. Because for thousands upon thousands of years prior to the 20th century, women were having epidurals and c-sections. This whole unmedicated vaginal birth thing is *such* a newfangled thing.

Dr. Amy goes on to make a number of historical mistakes in her post and tries to paint the entire natural birth movement as possessing the same mindset of a particular male doctor from the early-to-mid 20th century. Ordinarily, this type of illogical writing would have me quite upset and quite possibly spending hours researching, commenting, and debating.

But Dr. Amy made a huge mistake. She posted her unresearched tripe on a board full of well-researched, scientifically minded readers. And while I do not agree with a good bit of the posts (or commenters) on the site, I do have to say this: there are all well-educated and can spot a logical fallacy (for the most part) from miles away.

And they are giving Dr. Amy a bit of a schooling.

Excuse me while I make a bowl of popcorn and sit back to enjoy the schadenfreude.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

On Health Care

It's taken me several days to formulate my feelings about the health care bill that the House passed. Actually, it's taken me several days to find the words to express my anger and disgust about the Stupak-Pitts amendment that was added on at the last minute to the health care bill. And I still don't know whether my words will do my feelings any justice.

I'm angry. I'm angry at the Democrats - who I have supported with both money and efforts - for throwing women's reproductive rights under the proverbial bus in order to pass a flawed health care bill with a pitifully weak public option. I'm angry that in a country that supposedly has separation of church and state, Catholic bishops had so much power over the bill via the Stupak-Pitts amendment. I'm angry that the Democratic leadership is so weak that they allowed this "compromise" to occur in the first place.

I'm just angry.

In case you can't tell, I'm pro-choice. I've said it in a blog post before and I'll say it again: no one likes abortion. No one thinks it's great. But in the reality of our world, it is a necessary procedure. While the Stupak-Pitts amendment does not overturn Roe v Wade, it imposes such an effective economic barrier to access that for many low and middle income women, Roe v Wade might as well have been overturned. Abortions will still be available for those women who can afford it out of pocket, but for those women who can't afford the $300-$900 for a first trimester abortion, sorry...basically, we're telling these women: you can't afford an abortion, so you now have to pay for even more expensive maternity care and, more than likely, the raising of a child. You didn't conceive this child on your own, but if the father opts to not be responsible and pay child support, our courts aren't going to do much to help. We're not going to help you with maternity leave - chances are you will have to be back at work within 6 weeks. And on behalf of those who believe that the woman should be shown no sympathy or empathy because she made the decision to have sex in the first place, we're saying you're so irresponsible in the first place that we're going to force you to be responsible for raising another human.

Having known quite a few women who have had abortions for different reasons, it makes me angry that a bunch of people in Washington felt as though paying for a medical procedure that is utilized by 1/3 of all American woman was verboten, but the same people think it is ok to pay for Viagra. I'm angry that my rights and my access to healthcare are being determined by the leaders of a religion that I do not belong to.

I'm angry that the leaders I honestly believed in are showing themselves to be no more than mere politicians.

That's most coherant I can be about the subject at this point.