Writer’s Fortnight 2020 day 1

Speaker 1: To treat or not to treat? When keeping a child alive is the wrong thing to do

The first speaker I went to told us about his job and about the issues with when they decide whether or not to treat some kids. At first, I thought that the ethical decision he talked about was probably the most interesting angle but then he said something about respect for autonomy. With children, they can not ask their consent for whether or not they get treatment because they are too young. All the decision making is done by the team and the parent. The speaker had been discussing how ” the technology is easy, the ethics are difficult” or how when the parents and the medical team can’t come to a consensus they go to an ethics counsel and maybe the law but “the law is black and white but many of these issues are grey.” But when he mentioned the children’s autonomy and their opinions that did not even seem to be part of the issue I started thinking about how bodily autonomy is brought up in so many issues at the moment. So I think if I were to write about this experience with this speaker I would write about children’s opinions and how even when bodily autonomy is viewed as a right children still aren’t listened to for a decision that directly impacts them and the length of their lives.

Speaker 2: Growing up in a single-parent family in rural Ireland: my mum risked everything for me.

Ms Santo was the second speaker I went to. What she spoke about was her story. It was really interesting. One of the most interesting parts for me was when she discussed what the town was like and how they reacted to the single parent especially how she felt pressure to always look like everything was fine. The way she reacted to it was also interesting. Ms Santo said that she put pressure on her Mum to remarry or adopt some kid just so that they would have a normal family.

I also really like hearing about her Mother especially when she talked about her motivations and Ms Santo said “She isn’t motivated but anything she just lives,” This was such an interesting way to put it because she had been talking about how she always took opportunities. This was said near the end so I was unable to ask about it but that line was really interesting because whenever you hear about single families it is about all the work they did, being tired and preoccupied with money but strong for their child(ren). However, this really made me think of overcoming and despite always working knowing what is important in life. So for me, that was the most interesting part of the interview because despite being a short sentence in over half an hour of speaking it just completely went against the usual portrayal of single mothers.

In conclusion, both speakers were extremely different but for both there where specific parts that stood out for me and overall the whole thing was very interesting. So it will be interesting to hear more stories tomorrow.