June 28, 2009, The future is now
So many alarming trends at once reflected in this story, of a premature infant born in Ontario to Canadian parents, transferred to the only nearby neo-natal unit available, that across the border in Buffalo, NY. Obviously, Canada should have enough capacity to treat the medical needs of its own citizenry, and this will doubtless be hailed by some as a demonstration of the inferiority of all forms of socialized medicine. Of course, even here in "every man, woman and infant for himself land," it is still possible to occasionally encounter times when certain treatments are unavailable... All troubling enough.
But the more troubling (and relevant) point is that the parents, who do not have passports, were not permitted to accompany their critically ill child across the border, because, well, they lack passports, and no provision will be made for them until the next business day, probably not until Monday afternoon, by which time, various critical medical decisions may have to be made concerning the child over the telphone. Thanks to bureaucracy (and a recent change in law requiring a passport for all U.S-Canada border crossings, at least into Fortress America), the parents and child will just have to wait to see each other again until... whenever.
A cautionary tale from the dystopic future about unfeeling, uncaring bureaucracies and rules "to make us safe"... delivered to us right now.