Satire is a long-standing American tradition. According to dictionary.com,
satire is a literary composition in verse or prose, using irony, sarcasm, ridicule,
or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
How many U.S. presidents and other politicians have been and will continue to
be caricatured in political cartoons, making statements in such cartoons that
have never actually been spoken? How many U.S. presidents and politicians
have sued and will sue newspapers, magazines, and other media for publishing
such satire? What society doesn't need satire? Surely the American Civil
Liberties Union has much to say about our freedom of speech here in regard to
the use of satire.
Had Dr. Jay Gordon's same commentary been published as a political cartoon,
would his text have had any greater effect on society's conscience in regard
to the American Academy of Pediatrics' current moral stance on the marketing
of artificial infant milks? I would like to see his April 1st text, or points similarly
worded, in the format of a political cartoon. Perhaps Mothering magazine
could be approached to publish such a cartoon with an accompanying article
on this present angst in our society, or perhaps the NY Times or The
Washington Post would publish such a cartoon with an accompanying article.
If my memory is not flawed, banthebags.org had at one time posted
pediatrician and IBCLC Amy Kotler's essay on "Hospitals Should Market Health
and Nothing Else" re: "discharge" bags from formula companies. If memory
also serves, I believe Kotler's essay won a second place prize in an AAP essay
contest on bioethics. I do not recall any mention in her 2nd place prize-
winning essay encouraging the American Academy of Pediatrics to market
health and nothing else. Had Kotler written in the spirit of "Physician, heal
thyself" in regard to the AAP's current moral stance on the marketing of
artificial infant milks, would her essay have garnered her a 1st place prize in
the AAP's bioethics essay competition, or would that essay have been filed in
a trash bin, along with many empty formula bottles?
Her essay, as it was, may have created a small dent in the AAP's formula-clad
armor. Jay Gordon's satirical essay has gone a necessary step further in
support of healthy mothers and healthy babies, in support of the life-saving
and life-enhancing effects of breastfeeding and human milk.
In pushing and pulling society toward healthier, more positive directions on
moral issues, political cartoons and other satire often say so much that needs
to be said in a crisp, efficient and eloquent manner.
The long-awaited, much-anticipated 1997 AAP Position Statement on
Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk did so much good, but the AAP's
relationship with formula manufacturers continues.
The 2005 AAP Position Statement on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk
continues to do so much good, but the AAP's relationship with formula
manufacturers still continues.
Kotler's 2nd-place AAP prize-winnning essay on bioethics entitled "Hospitals
Should Market Health and Nothing Else" has done so much good, but the AAP's
relationship with formula manufacturers continues yet.
The AAP professes many lovely sentiments in publishing its position
statements on breastfeeding and the use of human milk. At the same time,
the AAP appears to be engaged in a romantic embrace with the formula
industry as its Sugar Daddy who buys the AAP the many things it wishes to
have. For those who are not familiar with the American slang expression
of "sugar daddy," the phrase has been historically used to describe a woman's
illicit lover who buys her things that her husband cannot or will not purchase
for her. Were the AAP to "see the light", get some religion and end its illicit
affair with the formula industry, so much more good could occur in our
American society. Satire over such a situation is desperately needed in
pushing for positive change for the greatest good.
Thank you, Dr. Jay Gordon, for taking this creative step in satire of the AAP's
current moral stance on the marketing of artificial infant milks. Thank you for
taking the subsequent heat in addressing a profoundly moral issue.
Debra Swank, RN IBCLC
Ashburn, Virginia USA
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