Lifeboat Ethics

                The article by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, “Lifeboat Ethics: Mother Love and Child Death in Northeast Brazil” really struck me out of all the articles on femininity that we have been reading as a class. I hadn’t ever thought about how poverty and starvation affects motherhood and babies, but clearly it has a huge impact on child development and infant survival. What is really sad is how common infant mortality is in the area, even when it may be prevented.

                Scheper-Hughes does a good job of trying to be partial and to paint a sympathetic picture of the mothers, rather than condemning them for abandoning their sick and dying children. She shows how the issue really lies with the culture and the lack of support these women get from the government and from the Catholic church. They really have no means to support their children, nutritionally, medically or emotionally.

                A friend of mine from Brazil had talked about how terrible the wage gap and poverty are in the country, especially in rural areas. This is certainly an extreme consequence of low economic status and governments and churches who are hostile to women and the issues they face surrounding reproductive rights, birth, and child rearing.