The case of Alfie Evans and his parents’ failed bid to care for him as they desire, due to the United Kingdom’s hospital and court system usurping their rights, showcases not only the dangers of socialized medicine, but effectively highlights the dangers of a strain of liberalism taking place in the United States.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, as most people know by now, removed life support from young Evans, the 23-month-old toddler suffering from a degenerative neurological condition, nearly five days ago now. By a providential miracle, Evans has defied the previous diagnosis of the hospital’s staff and continues to hold on to what remains of his tiny life this side of heaven.
This should remain one of the first obvious lessons of socialized medicine: Doctors and hospital staff should not be able to usurp parental rights, in this case but also because they could be wrong and have been wrong.
Now, Evans’ parents have no choice but to offer a conciliatory nod to the hospital in order to allow them the palliative care they want for Evans — which is to go home. Even now, despite such a simple but precious wish, they still fight a hospital system which maintains, despite their mistakes, that the hospital not only knows better in terms of medicine, but in terms of ethics and morality.
If this sounds spine-shivering, it should. And yet, there are pockets of this kind of worldview here in the United States, highlighted in various movements, ideologies, and philosophies.
Authoritarian states, even ones in a proper place like the U.K., start with confiscating weapons of protection, tightening gun control laws, and banning individuals from owning handguns as private citizens. Then slowly, they continue to tighten other laws, banning certain expressions and beefing up the government and police forces (they call it care and protection). But as in the case of the man who was sent to jail for flipping off and outsmarting a speeding detector, it’s actually more about testing to see where and how they can be more dictatorial. Like testing a cut of meat on the grill, the squishy parts that fail to resist get cooked longer and face more regulations. This, in turn, cuts into an individual’s freedom and ability to even speak out about the loss of it.
If this sounds far from where the United States is, what with our robust First and Second amendments, it should not. Despite our Bill of Rights, the progressive wing in this country attempts to squash and trample over the right to bear arms, the right to speak freely, and the right to freely worship not only regularly but under the guise of far less obvious scenarios. Instead of “We’ll kill your baby” it’s “Let’s have taxpayer-funded abortion clinics.” Instead of “Let’s ban gun ownership,” it’s “Let’s demonize the NRA.” Instead of “You can’t speak out against the government,” it’s “Bake the custom gay wedding cake or we’ll sue you.”
In every instance, where the U.K. perhaps is far more blatant and forthright, liberals in America are more subtle and creative but no less damaging. In fact, this subtle nature of liberalism, couched in terms like “tolerance,” “progressive,” and “acceptance,” paves the way for the kind of traumatic event the parents of Alfie Evans are experiencing now.
The lessons of Alfie Evans are tragic but should not be wasted: Every parent should not only want to expose the irresponsibility of the hospital, but to reckon with the court system which repeatedly denied them the ability to leave the country even after Italy granted them citizenship. At the least, they should be able to express disagreement with these decisions without fear of punitive measures.
First, the state comes for your guns, then your speech, then your kids. It might sound dramatic, but it’s reality in the U.K., and it will be here unless lovers of liberty remain vigilant.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
