[July 1998 journal entry]
The following thoughts are reflections on the approach a well-educated couple – one a physician -- took to their newborn’s devastating chromosomal abnormality plus serious heart malformation (i.e., they began and then withdrew prednisone, they brought the baby home in anticipation of death, they interpreted the situation down to the finest details as designed by ‘God’ even to the point of concluding that the baby’s being born now explains why they are in their present location).
The following thoughts are reflections on the approach a well-educated couple – one a physician -- took to their newborn’s devastating chromosomal abnormality plus serious heart malformation (i.e., they began and then withdrew prednisone, they brought the baby home in anticipation of death, they interpreted the situation down to the finest details as designed by ‘God’ even to the point of concluding that the baby’s being born now explains why they are in their present location).
- I have noticed how some religiously fundamentalist-leaning Christian physicians – as with this physician -- struggle and are awkward with references to ‘chance’ or ‘randomness’.
- The couple’s perspective seems to be analogous to a ‘house of cards’, comes across as very self-centered, leads them to interpret others’ experiences in the same way as they interpret their newborn’s tragedy.