Your Time With Kim --Your Time, Indeed, If You're Ignorant

Myranda has written about this radio show before, on her personal blog, but I want to bring Kim Iverson back up.

In case you are unfamiliar, "Your Time with Kim " is a nationally syndicated radio talk show hosted by Kim Iverson. It is played locally in Indianapolis on z995. The general premise is that her show is your time, as a woman, to get to talk and hear discussion about issues pertinent to women. You can find out more about her general show topics at her Wikipedia page.

Now, on one side I have to give Ms. Iverson some credit. She is under 30 and has a nationally syndicated radio show as a woman; a feat very few have accomplished. However, my admiration for her stops there because she has become popular on sexist premises. Her show segments are very narrowly tailored around topics which are stereotypically supposed to be interesting to women. Most nights they're not interesting, not in the least.

However, I do enjoy when current issues are discussed, using any medium. So every now and then when Kim discusses a topic with her listeners, I become morbidly curious. Once in a great while Kim says something reasonable. But usually, she spouts off her antiquated notions about family and dating, just like Myranda mentioned in her post.

Yesterday made me furious, however. She was discussing how a mother who doesn't believe in standard medicine is being prosecuted for homicide because her daughter died of a diabetic coma. Basically the mother believed that prayer was enough to save her daughter, and obviously it wasn't. Kim was defending the mother to the bitter end. I couldn't believe it.

The premise of Kim's argument was that we can't oppress other people with our religious belief that western medicine works. I could barely even follow her, it was so incomprehensible. She kept saying that in America we have the right to practice our religion. The mother wasn't negligent because she was *doing something* ...she was praying, and her chosen method of healing just wasn't working. She kept rambling about how every method of healing has a risk. Even doctors have failure rates, so the mother shouldn't be held accountable, just because her method failed. "Are we going to prosecute parents who seek medical attention and choose a doctor who doesn't save their child?" She also insisted that parents are allowed to choose a religion for their kids, and if that means bad things happen to them, then darn, but it's allowed because of religious freedoms.

Bullshit! Let's get a few things straight here:
1) Western medicine is not a belief. It is a fact! Diabetes, in this case, is an extremely manageable condition using western medicine. Not all disorders have the same success rates, but since this example is about diabetes, we can be almost 100% certain that her daughter wouldn't have died so young had she been treated by a doctor. Unlike the prayer method, we *know* that insulin manages diabetes.
2) This was a CHILD. Religious freedoms are such a difficult area here. If I had heard that the woman was trying to pray away her own diabetes and died, then so be it! But that child didn't have a chance to make an informed decision. She didn't even become old enough to choose her own religious beliefs. This atrocity was inflicted UPON her and she subsequently died at the age of 11.
3) Because she was a child, certain laws exist to protect her. In fact, neglect by definition in American law includes withholding necessary medical attention. Why should this case be any different that someone who simply ignored their child's symptoms? Where do we draw the line? What will we say is permissible just because of religion? What about radical Mormons and their child brides? What about religions that include human sacrifice?

The fact of the matter is that this should be a non-issue. This woman is being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and should be. Religious freedom in America does not extend to allowing the death of children. I'm sorry. It just doesn't.

All this isn't to say that prayer isn't an important and powerful force in healing. People whose families are suffering or who are suffering themselves frequently find much comfort and guidance in their faith. It can be a powerful force. However, those people are usually using prayer and faith in tandem with western medicine. God didn't make us the most intelligent species so that we could ignore the many wonderful benefits of our progressing technology. Just sayin'.

So, while this went off on a somewhat tangentially feminist topic, my point remains: Kim Iverson is an idiot and "my" time with her only makes me stupider. Now, if I could just stop being so lazy and turn the damn radio dial when I'm driving and she's on...I'd be set!