reddit user bertrand seems to have had problems with the atheism sub-reddit moderators, who keep deleting his post about how gandhi killed his wife by refusing her penicillin. in case the moderators decide unfairly to delete his post again, i've saved my comment here, because i spent a decent amount of time researching it and writing it, and i don't want that work to vanish because of some moderator's whim.
also, i think bertrand's post demonstrates a double standard of a kind which is common to all people, but which is most obnoxious among certain atheists, because these certain atheists believe that they are beyond such human failings, merely by virtue of the fact that they have recognized that a god, in all likelihood, does not exist.
on with the comment:
ugh. one sentence in an opinion piece somehow constitutes the truth?
of course it does. so long as the person in question could be considered in any way religious, he is fair game for people who have a beef with religions and their practitioners. no need for research, for delving deeper to find out what really happened. no need to examine or understand or sympathize with the emotional motivations behind the decision. rather, it is preferable to simply use this one writer's opinion to reinforce one's own prejudices.
here's what really happened:
- gandhi's wife was 74 years old.
- she had chronic bronchitis.
- she had two heart attacks as a result of this illness, which left her bed-ridden for the remainder of her life.
- she contracted pneumonia, which complicated her illness, at which point doctors told gandhi and his son that she was beyond medical help.
- gandhi's son nevertheless wanted to try the relatively new miracle drug, penicillin, in hopes of curing her.
- on her death bed, gandhi's wife acknowledged that her "time was up."
- the penicillin would need to be injected every four to six hours.
- in an argument with his son, gandhi said ""why do you want to prolong your mother's agonies after all the suffering she has been through? you can't cure her now, no matter what miracle drug you may muster. but if you insist, i will not stand in your way."
hmmm. so, here we have a situation in which
- an elderly woman with a chronic disease complicated by an infection known to kill the elderly,
- who was clearly on her death bed,
- who was in constant pain,
- who was ready to die,
- who was told by doctors that she was beyond help,
is now propped up by the OP as some sort of cause célèbre to smear the reputation of a man who, in large measure, was responsible for the liberation of his people from the oppression of the british through non-violent means, and who is rightly revered by millions, if not billions, of people around the world for doing so.
in this scenario, gandhi is a monster, a deluded fool. he did not extend to his own wife the same compassion and mercy that he extended to all other people, because he was a religious man who did not believe in the healing power of scientific medicine.
nevermind that his religion did not actually factor into his decision to refuse treatment for his wife. no, gandhi allowed his wife to die, when she could have been saved by western medicine. it had nothing to do with her age, the progression of the disease, the opinions of doctors, or his love for his wife and his wish not to prolong her suffering.
she would have died, in any case. the administration of penicillin, by frequent, painful injections, if it had worked at all, would not have reversed the course of her illness, but merely slowed it down. that gandhi recognized all of this is irrelevant to the person with an agenda. such humanist considerations made by a man of faith simply will not do. no, it must be that gandhi did not trust science, because his religion told him not to.
of course, this situation is not that far removed from another, more recent controversy, in which a woman named terry schiavo, who was also beyond help, was used as a prop by a different group of ideologues who likewise aimed to vilify those who are on the side of compassion and mercy.
way to go, bertrand.
