42. Study ethics
It has been of the main subject in my life.
When I was young, my uncles loved to discuss ethical matters like war, resistance. We sat for hours discussing things, while my gram gave us coffee, tea, lemonade and her home baked cookies.
Often she would sit with me later in the week, reviewing the discussion, giving advice.
At university I often found myself discussion matters with my fellow students and professors.
It was in a time that feminists were looking for opportunities to confront the male population with their needs. But they forgot that motherhood was one of the important aspects of being a female. So there were not many females at the department of obstetrics and gynecology taking part in discussions there.
In the meantime I was a psychologist and a mom. My second baby died, probably due to ignored rhesus antagonism.
The hospital was an old-fashioned catholic hospital, under the strong watching eye of the vatican.
The feminists were pushing their views on the male part of the population, wanted to be boss in their own belly. The Netherlands was one of the most free thinking nations of the world.
But the subject of spontaneous and provoked abortion was a dangerous one in the hospital. Often women were referred to other hospitals and it was in the interest of the hospital, not of the women.
One day I forgot that the professor of obstetrics didn't like opposition at all.
We were discussing the subject of referral when the professor joined in. Suddenly it was very quiet and I saw it as an opportunity to state my case. And when he told me he didn't agree with me, I just treated him as a fellow student, so I gave my statements, expecting him to go against it.
By that time I realized my mistake and I thought he would throw me out of the department, as he had done so often before with students and alumni he didn't like.
To our huge surprise he said 'Thank you, I will think about this', and went away.
The next day I was called for.
He asked me to become a member of the ethical commission of the department.
I refused, for several reasons. One of them was that I was a mom and wanted to be in control of family time.
Ethics has since had my attention even more, and it has led to the start of the movement of ethical journalism, which centers around ethical ways of publishing...and non-publishing.
I would love to be able to give my ethical views in a more professional setting.
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