The Maternal Problem

Columnist Nicholas Kristof, in his opinion article "If Americans Love Moms, Why Do We Let Them Die?" (2017),  asserts that maternal medicine in the United States is failing, and it is completely unacceptable. He describes the current situation, then uses contrast to shed light on the difference between the U.S. and other advanced countries in this area, follows with pathos in the form of personal anecdotes of women who suffer because of this lacking, and builds a political argument on the basis that this issue is due to problems with Medicaid and Republicans lack of initiative in an issue that they are apparently passionate about. Kristof intends to shed light on the sad, harsh reality of the situation and those who it affects, and also admonish the American medical system as well as the government administration for not dealing with this problem. He serves as a critic towards the Republican administration and American maternal medicine, and as a advocate for the women who are unable to receive adequate medical care.


In his opinion article, "If Americans Love Moms, Why Do We Let Them Die?," Nicholas Kristof sheds light on a disturbing downfall of American medicine. He delivered cold, harsh facts about the amount of women who die from pregnancy every year in America, and the numbers are unsettling. What shocks me the most about this issue is how this could be happening in America. I had never heard that pregnancy deaths were so common or that maternal medicine is in a bad state in this country, but what is so shocking to me is that we could be having issues like this today. We are living in the 21st century in the one of the most advanced countries in the world, yet death rates of pregnant women are lower than most other countries. Why are we failing so terribly in this area? I disagree with Kristof's harsh wording that we have "structures health care so that motherhood is far more deadly" here than anywhere else and that we are "lying" when we claim to cherish mothers. His wording is a bit too dramatic and exaggerated, yet he points to the truth. Facts and numbers don't lie, and unfortunately, numbers show that this issue is a pretty big one indeed. How could it be that in 2017, in the heart of innovation, science, medicine and inventions, such a problem could continue to exist. I don't think that all of the blame should be put on the Republican administration, as Kristof strongly thinks, but rather believe that America is simply not paying attention. America needs to be reviewing its priorities and focusing much more effort in this area to fix this issue as quickly as possible. I believe that we have within our country the people who are knowledgeable and able to deal with this problem, but they aren't focusing on it so nothing it being done about it. Medical crises like child cancer, breast cancer, mental illness and others are highlighted so much in society and tons of effort, research, and funding has gone into these areas to improve them. The reason that maternal medicine is not being dealt with and is declining could be that it is not in the focus of the medical world and is therefore not receiving the attention that it needs to be solved. We need to readjust this focus and shed light on the plight of these helpless women in the hopes of getting them the assistance that they are in dire need for.






https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/opinion/sunday/texas-childbirth-maternal-mortality.html?ref=topics

Comments

  1. Ashley BrownSeptember 5, 2017 at 7:32 AM

    You really got a lot into that precis! Good use of complex sentences and on nailing the tone.

    As you pointed out in your response, the cold hard facts are very persuasive even though you didn't care for his tone. You should have mentioned that in sentence two of your precis since it was the technique that persuaded YOU. You could have put that in instead of "describes the current situation."

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  2. Ezra CooperSeptember 5, 2017 at 12:17 PM

    Yo good work good work. The precis was mamash tov, real good job. A couple things though:
    1. Would not have hurt to talk a little more about the persuasion the columnist used, but the structure, sentences, and content were all superb.
    2. Just a little grammar, last sentence should say "and as an advocate" but that "an" was an "a" but easily fixable.
    Really nice though otherwise, good tone, audience, all that.

    Your personal response also quite good. I agree with your stance, but to a certain extent. It's clearly a problem that the US has failed to address to this point, as you mentioned, and something that needs to be corrected sooner rather than later. Yet, you disagreed with the strong, dramatic wording used by Kristof, which I would say is absolutely necessary. You said it yourself, the numbers point in the direction of his argument and the numbers don't lie - America is far behind and such problem does indeed exist. Furthermore, you described that America has not given this issue enough attention, and thus I would argue that using strong minded and slightly exaggerated tone, as Kristof did, would generate more attention to this issue. Therefore, in the article itself, Kristof is already doing his part in generating change and helping draw attention to the problem. Before the problem is addressed, it needs attention and that's exactly what Kristof is doing with his dramatic and slightly exaggerated tone. But that's just my humble opinion.
    One other small thing, the structure of the personal response is a little confusing. After quickly summarizing, you explained that you were shocked to hear about the issue, and went on to ask why this is happening in our advanced country. Immediately after, you detoured onto the issue of Kristof's strong and exaggerated tone. It just feels like a big jump from one point to the next, and loses a bit of flow at that point, but you were probably just letting your mind run, so I chap.
    Fantastic work though, a real nice job getting your points across clearly, and strong and sound opinions.

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