NEW THIS WEEK 24 OCTOBER 2011

Yue Yue, dying on the street
The news story this week has to be the tragic loss of Yue Yue.

The 2 year old toddler who was run over twice by two separate trucks and then ignored by 18 passers-by before someone noticed her. What a horrible horrible way for Yue Yue to be treated. The moral and ethic code of China has been a talking point this week but my mind immediately goes to an image I saw a few years ago in Marie Claire of a newborn baby girl laying dead in the gutter and people seen stepping around her.

@MsDovic remarked on twitter that Australians can also be just as heartless when her boys were calling out her name in a shopping centre and no-one stopped to help them. She never actually lost sight of her boys but she was amazed that no-one gave them a second thought.

How we treat our children will steer the direction society will take in generations to come.

Kylie Orr wrote an opinion piece on pregnancy reduction on Essential Baby.

This is an article that featured in the New York Times on August 10 2011 about a woman who chooses to abort one of her twins, but keeping the other.

And to illustrate the ultimate sacrifice, a woman, in the United States, who was told she had cancer chose to forgo treatment while she was pregnant to give her daughter a chance at life; ultimately sealing her own fate. A couple of weeks after Stacie Crimm delivered her daughter she died.

Kind of puts the pregnancy reduction issue in its place.

Life; we are granted it, and then we tend to take it for granted.
Life; how we treat it is indicative of the moral code that society abides by.
Life; what do you make of it?

10 Comments

  • At 2011.10.24 20:17, Kirrily said:

    All these stories you’ve raised bring me to my knees. What do I make of it? It’s fragile, life. I have a number of very personal experiences with death that have opened my eyes to just how vulnerable we all are, each and every one. There has been no faster way to shake me into my own life, fully and wholly. That poor, dear, dear little girl in China. I haven’t the words.

    • At 2011.10.25 19:54, Maria said:

      Yue Yue is probably the most gut wrenching story out of the three.

      Life is fragile. And sometimes we’re just arrogant enough to think we can control it.

      Thanks for the visit Kirrily.

      Love & stuff
      Mrs M

    • At 2011.10.24 20:19, Gemma @ My Big Nutshell said:

      This breaks my heart. Such disregard for humanity and such regard for humanity, the polarisation is so huge it is sickening.

      Life, such big shoes to fill, a pity people don’t even bother to put on slippers for the occasion!

      • At 2011.10.25 19:57, Maria said:

        The polarisation is huge isn’t it? It is truly remarkable.

        How we regard life must be a social and cultural thing.

        Love & stuff
        Mrs M

      • At 2011.10.24 20:26, katesaysstuff said:

        I’m horrified by the Yue Yue thing. It’s just brutal. That poor girl 🙁 🙁

        And to sacrifice yourself for your unborn child… I just don’t have the words.

        Heartbreaking all ’round.

        • At 2011.10.25 19:58, Maria said:

          Kate, that story of the mother who denied treatment to give her daughter a chance at life really just puts everything into perspective. That is the benchmark story out of the three for me.

          Love & stuff
          Mrs M

        • At 2011.10.24 20:29, Lina@MothersLoveLetters said:

          I was very emotionally affected by the life of the little newborn girl, whose body and umbilical cord was found in Tasmanian bushland last week.
          May all these angels’ souls, Rest In Peace.

          • At 2011.10.25 20:01, Maria said:

            Yes Lina I read about that too and did read your post about it. That would have been a good story to add to the post above.

            I often read stories about infanticide in India and China and I often think where is the mother’s instinct to take this child and protect it?

            Love & stuff
            Mrs M

          • At 2011.10.25 11:03, MummyK said:

            This is so disturbing.

            • At 2011.10.25 20:01, Maria said:

              Yeah welcome to Earth. We’re a messed up bunch.

              Love & stuff
              Mrs M

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