For the past couple of months, I have been binge watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and I am definitely hooked. I love the storylines, and the many different cases that come through the doors of Seattle Grace Hospital because it can all be learned from. I have just previously watched season 8: episode 18, which is titled, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” In this episode, we see Dr. Karev assist an intern/patient after the birth of her son, who has been born premature. The baby began to exhibit signs that it may need surgery and that he has made a turn for the worse. We also see that Karev begins to distance itself from the patient because he cannot risk falling back in love like he did with Ava.
The intern finally finds out that there may be a chance that the baby needs surgery or she has to make the decision to allow the baby to die. Arizona Robbins, the pediatric surgeon begins to tell the intern the risk factors of allowing her babies have the surgery. This is where the episode took a turn for me. She informed the patient that the baby could obtain cerebral palsy, cognitive disabilities as well as ‘a life of pain.’ She began to also tell her that she really need to think hard about this decision, and to really think about whether this was something she wanted a child to live with, opposed to allowing the child to die.
Being a 26-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, who just happened to be born premature, I was infuriated by the fact that these were this woman’s only choices. Dr. Karev and Dr. Robbins made it sound like the baby could not live life with cerebral palsy or cognitive disabilities. The writing in this episode, particularly with this scene bothered me profusely. It suggested that those with cerebral palsy and or cognitive disabilities had no right to live because of their prematurity and slow growth.
At 26 years old, I am an author, small business owner, degree holder and all around fun person. I have goals, I have a life and I have dreams. It is all because I made it through prematurity. If my mother was told to consider letting me die and not have the chance to live life, I hope that someone would tell her that that could be the worst decision that she could ever make. Yes, this woman’s life would be filled with numerous doctor’s appointments, specialists, medicines and her son would experience pain, but death should not have been her other option.
I am around people every day that have different disabilities and their lives are, for the most part, fulfilled. Whether you have a disability or not, we will all experience pain, whether it be from old age or something else. This episode suggested that death would have been a better option, or an easier one, but I’m here to tell you that if every parent took the easy way out, the world would be missing some great people.
