What the hell is happening to this world?!

[burythehatchet]

Report: E. J'lem hospital held newborn triplet as 'deposit'

By Yuval Yoaz and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents

Moqassed Hospital in East Jerusalem allegedly refused to release a baby to its mother for two months until she paid her hospital bill.

After the Justice Ministry's legal aid department intervened last week upon the mother's request, the Health Ministry ordered the baby released to her. The ministry now is looking into whether the hospital can be prosecuted for false imprisonment, and whether it should assist the mother in suing the hospital for damages.


http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/694966.html

There are human beings who sit at desks making these decisions. This is civilization???

[Warpy]

1. US hospitals have been caught jailing debtors

as a way of "repossessing" the work they've done to keep them alive. The debtor's crime is missing a payment.

Hospitals are now the most aggressive bill collectors out there.

[RazzleDazzle]

10. I'd like to see some documentation of that

It's not that I don't believe you, tho it does sound incredible. I'd just like that for further info and my files.

[Lars39]

14. Here's some info:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:l8BKqERjtDwJ:www.democracynow.org/article.pl%3Fsid%3D04/01/07/1524223+body+attachments+to+pay+hospital+debt&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

[Selatius]

2. Money-grubbing has been with us as long as money has existed

If you have a problem with it, I really don't have any answers except to say money is the best system we've got to get people to work.

Maybe if we lived in a world where people were more virtuous and more altruistic than they currently are, then perhaps one's promise, one's word or solemn oath, to provide a service in exchange for another service would be taken in place of money, but we don't live in that world. We believe in money, not each other's word to repay the favor.

[burythehatchet]

4. money is the best system we've got to get people to work.

No offense, but that comment is as offensive as the story itself. It reflects an assessment of the human spirit that, in my opinion and according to my philosophy of the nature of man, that is completely misguided.

Money is not the best system. Money is the worst possible system. Unfortunately, it is the system under which we are forced to operate. Money is a Darwinist system that appeals to the basest nature and instinct of man. It will prove to be the downfall of our species, if that isn't already evident.

[Clara T]

5. Agree

Social Darwinism is now an "inherent" manner of behavior according to the current zeitgeist, when in fact it is only through mass conditioning that this catastrophic ideology has come to be accepted, with the coin of the realm as its currency as well as serving to be both the carrot and the stick.

There are many cultures that live(d) in money-free societies and practiced ways of community nd reciprocity though they did not even need words to describe what I just have as it was their natural way of being and their interdependency was necessitated by not only need but also by a deeper bond that transcended the superficial relationships of our "networking'" culture.

Bureaucracy is inherently evil in a systemized, calculated manner where distance from ones actions and emotions is become (I use the word 'is' purposefully) the daily bread of one's existence.

The Machine

[converted_democrat]

8. Spot on.. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

3. Sick bastards n/t

[Just Me]

6. I am calling God about this shit!!!

God!!!! Hello,....God. Stop this insanity. PLEASE, STOP IT.

[Nutmegger]

7. They do the same thing in China

Family members have to rush to get $$$ or the doctor will stop the operation.

What a wonderful world.

[RazzleDazzle]

9. they won't stop childbirth

at least not successfully. They may end up with dead mother and baby (in a non-normal delivery situation), but they won't STOP it.

[in_cog_ni_to]

11. Time to go back to home birthing with a Midwife.

I'm serious. That may be a good business to start....MIDWIVES R US.;)

SCREW THE HOSPITALS. SCREW THE DOCTORS. SCREW THE COLLECTION AGENCIES. SCREW 'EM ALL. Keep your money and give birth at home.

[burythehatchet]

12. My 3 siblings and I were all delivered at home by

my paternal grandmother. Indian tradition.

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. SEE? You and your siblings lived. Honestly, that's where we need to go.,

Home births. Starve the beasts...the hospital, the greedy doctors and the insurance companies.