In my country, kidnapping for ransom is in some urban areas, quite quotidian. There have been some very high-profile cases involving victims from all points of the socioeconomic spectrum, and most of them are not solved like in the movies. Most of the time the kidnappers win; Mexican law enforcement is basically learning as it goes.
So a Mexican researcher did a study on how kidnapping affects a family. He found out that, contrary to many adverse (even traumatic) experiences, kidnapping destroys a family like nothing else can. The reason for this is the ransom negotiation.
See, when the kidnappers put a ransom on a person, that person realizes that their life has a price. And when the rest of the family dithers and delays, they signal to the kidnapped that they don't think their life is worth that much. The family may have a dozen good reasons to not pay a ransom immediately, among those the lack of guarantees that the loved one will be returned once the ransom is paid.... but all that a person can do is think, "I know full well that paying this ransom would sink us into poverty, but my family would rather risk my life and have me simmer in this living hell of fear and doubt than to give up their lifestyle."
Hence a family is destroyed; once a price is set on a human life, no amount of rhetoric can make the human in question believe she is priceless. Once you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.
The parallels to the situation regarding vegetative persons are clear. And if the situation is morally equivalent, the only moral thing to do is pay, pay promptly and keep paying, even if the kidnapper wears green scrubs and wields a sthethoscope instead of a gun.
When the Holy Father demands that more resources be spent in learning how to heal people instead of euthanizing them, he is doing no more than calling for more and smarter police to deal with kidnappers.
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timeasmymeasure
Like paying a ransom.
Date: 2004-03-21 11:06 pm (UTC)In my country, kidnapping for ransom is in some urban areas, quite quotidian. There have been some very high-profile cases involving victims from all points of the socioeconomic spectrum, and most of them are not solved like in the movies. Most of the time the kidnappers win; Mexican law enforcement is basically learning as it goes.
So a Mexican researcher did a study on how kidnapping affects a family. He found out that, contrary to many adverse (even traumatic) experiences, kidnapping destroys a family like nothing else can. The reason for this is the ransom negotiation.
See, when the kidnappers put a ransom on a person, that person realizes that their life has a price. And when the rest of the family dithers and delays, they signal to the kidnapped that they don't think their life is worth that much. The family may have a dozen good reasons to not pay a ransom immediately, among those the lack of guarantees that the loved one will be returned once the ransom is paid.... but all that a person can do is think, "I know full well that paying this ransom would sink us into poverty, but my family would rather risk my life and have me simmer in this living hell of fear and doubt than to give up their lifestyle."
Hence a family is destroyed; once a price is set on a human life, no amount of rhetoric can make the human in question believe she is priceless. Once you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.
The parallels to the situation regarding vegetative persons are clear. And if the situation is morally equivalent, the only moral thing to do is pay, pay promptly and keep paying, even if the kidnapper wears green scrubs and wields a sthethoscope instead of a gun.
When the Holy Father demands that more resources be spent in learning how to heal people instead of euthanizing them, he is doing no more than calling for more and smarter police to deal with kidnappers.