The Use of Force - Essay Example

 The Use of Force I would rank the statements in the following order: 1. Force against people is justified when it is used to halt disease 2. Children are capable of stubborn fury 3. The desire to help may be met with resistance 4. We should cooperate with doctors even if they seem threatening to us. These are the four most important statements that are relevant to the story. I believe the other statements may raise peripheral issues, such as the possibility of the doctor feeling contempt for the working class or that all of us are prejudiced in one way or the other, but they are not germane to the main plot and message of the story. In reference to the first statement, it forms the most important theme that underlies the story and the doctor’s use of force with the child is portrayed in an unfavorable manner. It can be argued either way, i.e, that the doctor has the right to use force with the girl in her best interests or that it is not right for him to use force and attempt to treat her without her consent, since a patient’s autonomy must be respected. However, there are some aspects in the story that do support the position that he has the right to use force. For instance, the patient in this instance is a child who may not necessarily be equipped to make the best decisions in regard to her health. Secondly, the doctor has the permission of the parents, who tell their child “come on, do what he tells you.” Moreover, the doctor also explains the danger to the parents but says that he would not “insist on a throat examination so long as they would take the responsibility.” Thirdly, the doctor is well aware that there are several children at the girl’s school who are also suffering from diphtheria and that there is a good chance the child has contracted diphtheria as well. Therefore, his forcible examination has one objective – that of ensuring that the child’s health is preserved and she does not die of the disease. In a situation where the child’s life is pitted against the use of force, the doctor’s forcible examination would appear to be called for. The second most important theme underlying the story is the furious refusal of the child to let the doctor examine her and her antagonism towards him from the start. For instance, from the first moment he arrives, she just stares coldly at him with no expression in her eyes whatsoever. Then, when the doctor asks her to open her mouth, she silently refuses to comply. When he moves closer to examine her, “both her hands claw instinctively” for the doctor’s eyes and narrowly miss them, although she knocks his glasses off. When the doctor asks the father to hold her hands, the child screams that they’re hurting her. She is hysterical and violent as she screams, “Stop it! You’re killing me!” When the doctor manages to get his wooden tongue depressor into her mouth, she first fought with clenched teeth and then reduced the wooden stick to splinters with her molars, causing her tongue and mouth to bleed. “Her tongue was cut and she was screaming in wild hysterical shrieks.” When the doctor finally overpowers her enough to stick a spatula into her mouth and observes the tonsils covered with membrane, she gets off her father’s lap and actually attacks the doctor. All of these lend credence to the statement that children are capable of stubborn fury. In every aspect of resistance the child shows, she demonstrates her stubborn nature and her fury at the doctor for discovering her secret – the secret that she had been hiding from her parents for three whole days about her disease. The natural resistance that the family shows to the doctor is also evident in the story. They are poor people who cannot strictly afford a doctor except in the most extenuating circumstances. In the beginning of the story, the doctor states, “I could see that they were all very nervous, eyeing me up and down distrustfully.” They view the doctor as someone different from them, who is not to be trusted with anymore than what is strictly necessary to diagnose their doctor’s illness. Since they are poor people and have spent three dollars, they expect the doctor to tell them what was wrong with the daughter. There is also an existing perception among these people that the doctor is a person who may be a source of pain, this is evident in the mother’s statement to her daughter, “Come on, do what he tells you to. He won’t hurt you.” The embarrassment and shame the parents feel at their daughter’s resistance also exemplifies the social divide that exists between the doctor and the poor family. The young patient’s stubborn refusal to submit to the doctor’s examination is also a reflection of the underlying fear that the doctor will cause her pain, perhaps by giving her an injection or prescribing some other kind of painful treatment for her. This story thus reveals the need for people to understand that doctors are not to be viewed as a threat, rather their objective is to help and to provide treatment for the sick. This is especially difficult for the uneducated working class to understand and the divide between the lives of these people and the professional life of the doctor is an underlying theme in the story. Reference: * Williams, William Carlos. “The use of force” Read More