Knowledge, Access and Respect

We have recently been watching a British drama series at our house filmed in the 1990’s but about a time just after World War II in the early 1950’s. It is set in a small town in Scotland, and centers around the doctors who practice medicine there. 

In one such episode, the story came to be about a woman, some 30 years after giving birth to her one child, who for that entire time had been suffering grotesque conditions and pain because of what transpired during the birthing process. She had suffered in silence for three decades.

She had suffered in silence for three decades, and the story revealed three things that were at stake: knowledge, access and respect. 

Knowledge. One of the doctors revealed in this story that they had had a surgical remedy for the condition for nearly two decades.  So, for the majority of the time that this woman suffered, there was a remedy. Her isolation and the lack of medical and health education for women, specifically, kept her in ignorance and in pain.

Access. As the woman and her husband sat listening to the doctor describe the surgery that would have given her relief 20 years earlier, the husband muttered: but who had money for something like that back then? This story transpired as the UK was moving from private and individual pay health care to national health care. Even if they had known about the surgery, their low income would have prevented them access to the needed health care. 

Respect. The constant sub-theme throughout this story was the second class status of women in the community. An outcome of her eventual successful surgery was the “bold idea” of inviting every woman into the medical clinic for an overall health check up. That was, of course, an excellent plan, but the very fact that it was socially acceptable for women to suffer in silence, remain in ignorance about their own bodies and healthcare with little access to that healthcare speaks to the primary problem behind all of this: dignity and respect. 

We can take these signposts to almost any social issue that we as human beings face. Where one is lacking, knowledge, access or respect, we will find work for equity and justice waiting to be done. 

~Bob Patrick