When No One Grieves...

In the hospital, we experience death and dying daily but because we are so used to seeing it everyday that it has become "ordinary"...in other words, a part of our daily routine, so that hospital workers are perceived to be callous to pain and suffering.  How often do I get complaints about how our emergency room staff  behaves while the dead patient is still in the ER...like how they could be seen talking and kidding around while finishing up their work.  Is this apathy? I prefer to call it coping.  It's not that we do not feel the pain and suffering...but dealing with it 24/7 can drain a person emotionally and mentally. So the fear is always that if  hospital workers do not learn to distance themselves emotionally from their patients, they will not be able to do their work.  I remember as a young intern I used to cry when I see my charity patients dying. I felt so much anger not because they were dying, but that they were poor and I wished I could do more but did not since I too had limited resources. I would also cry for the elderly because they reminded me of my grandmother and other people's grandmother, who in their old age needed to feel the presence of their families.  But the worst deaths were the ones with no one to grieve for them, yet strangely I don't feel as sad or angry. I often wondered about this and I came to the conclusion that maybe because patients whose families are disinterested with their care, also makes me less interested in them and therefore I don't form any connection to the patient. But yes, I would feel some guilt because I knew deep inside me that I should have cared more. 

Why I Do Not Support the RH Bill

This post first came out in my other blog Politika-et-Kultura on February 23, 2011.  The original RH Bill discussed below had revisions since then, but the current version that was eventually passed as The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (informally known as the RH Law) by Congress and the Senate, is for me just as unsatisfactory as the original. I believe it's provisions are unethical and detrimental to all stakeholders involved. The implementation of the RH Law was put on hold by the Supreme Court early last year and will be decided on April, this year. Because of this, I decided to copy it here on my health/ethics blog, with the sole purpose of reminding myself, why I am against the RH Law.

Stop The Debates: Pass The Freakin' RH Bill >:(

The past few days, there has been so much debate on the Philippine Reproductive Health (RH) Bill both in mainstream and social media due to the fact that this week Congress will be voting on it.  For the record, I am an Anti-RH Bill advocate, BUT I realized that the only way to conclude this never ending debate that is not doing this country any good, is to PASS THAT FREAKIN' BILL!