> -----Original Message----- > From: G Money [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:39 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Is Veganism An Eating Disorder? (WAS: Vegans Kill Their > Baby) > > It's a valid question though, because most people are able to ascertain > when > a certain course of action has become a dangerous situation, and > reverse > course. The exceptions are generally granted the status of "disorders". > > For instance, a person who just doesn't like to eat, may notice > themselves > becoming dangerously thin, and gain some weight by eating a little > more, > even though they don't particularly enjoy it. Whereas someone suffering > from > an eating disorder, cannot or will not act to counter the danger.
I suppose it completely depends on how you define "disorder". Is any essentially well-meaning but self-destructive (or in this case parentally destructive) behavior a disorder? If so, then yes - this definitely qualifies. By "well-meaning" here I mean behavior that has an honestly "good" goal. In this case (giving in the benefit of the doubt) we might assume that the parents had every good intention: they "knew" that veganism was best for their child. They wanted their child to grow strong and healthy. The anorexic or bulimic wants to improve themselves, make themselves feel more attractive. The woman who scalds her children to drive out the devil has, essentially, good intentions. The gambler wants to better his life. Destructive behavior is pretty clear: behavior that results in injury, death or a clear, universally understood degradation of quality of life. That last bit seems really debatable however. I think there are at least two other factors however. The most important is compulsion. I think we can all agree that destructive, but compulsory behavior indicates a problem - a disorder. Somebody that can't (not won't, CAN'T) stop cutting themselves has a disorder. Many eating and addictive disorders have that aspect: the person is unable (not unwilling) to stop. In this case we might ask "were the parents truly unable to stop under-nourishing their child or was it a reversible choice?" This leads us to the second things: ignorance. Anybody can be convinced of a truth. A perfectly normal, healthy, well-adjusted person can be convinced to do the most horrendous things for the most honorable reasons. If you were raised to believe that the health of your community, family and self depended upon child sacrifice you might embrace the idea. It's more contained but that's what's happening across the planet: people are being convinced of insane notions and causing harm because of them. Are all of these to be labeled disorders. Off the top of my head: +) As in our case there's a movement to redefine nutritional requirements. In extreme cases some believe that you don't need to eat at all (the "Breatharians") while others believe that other ideas are conspiracies or immoral (as in "needing meat is myth propagated by the Beef, Chicken and Pork cartels!"). +) There's a growing community of people that have been convinced that all immunizations are harmful or, at best, unnecessary. They refuse immunizations of any kind regardless of the health risks to themselves and their children. +) There's another growing community that believes that HIV and AIDS are, in fact, completely unrelated. They have unprotected sex, give birth to HIV-Positive children and in general fail to take the threat of spreading HIV seriously. +) There's a large number of dangerous and medically impotent "therapies" that have any number of adherents who have been convinced of their quality. Several children have been killed (most suffocated) during "rebirthing" ceremonies for example. There have also been numerous cases of severe injury in children and infants due to chiropractic adjustments done to cure disease or change behavior. At best these therapies prevent patients from receiving actual medical care, at worst they actively harm (as when herbal remedies are mixed with other medications and cause fatal interactions). +) By the same token there's a growing resentment or distrust of government and business. Self-serving books like "Cures they Don't Want you to Know About" tell you that government and business (and doctors by extension) are not to be trusted. Does your child have cancer? Don't listen to the doctor - that shill for big pharma; cancer can be cured with simple vitamin supplements. +) To finish out this thread we've also got outright magical thinking. People like Silvia Browne and books like "The Secret" tell us that illness is just a physical manifestation of our inner selves: we can cure ourselves by thinking positive thoughts. Or through group energy or with the help a psychic or whatever. +) The number of children killed, maimed or destroyed by over-zealous religious beliefs is probably too great to count. This can be physical abuse in an effort to punish sin or protect against satanic influence or psychological or emotional abuse. It also has obvious ramifications in those sects that don't believe in medical treatment or in the efficacy of prayer as treatment. In all of these cases there may be underlying medical problems contributing to the issue or maing it more extreme (and deadly) but in many of them they are perfectly normal (if gullible) people that are truly, deeply convinced that they're doing the right thing. Can all of these be considered "disordered" people? Even if so what does having such a disorder really mean? Does it preclude one from criminal charges being filed (as they're "sick" and not in their right minds) or not? I'm not suggesting an answer, I'm just saying that the problem seems much larger than veganism. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Deploy Web Applications Quickly across the enterprise with ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2 Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:234413 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
