We do not tend to like that type of solution. It does indeed endanger believers in some ways. For instance, France’s decision a couple of years ago to allow no public display of religion in its pre-university schools strikes me as a mistake. There will be cases in which the State will make a big mistake. But, again, it is the lesser of two evils approach. And, when the decision potentially involves the death of a child, then the lesser of two evils approach can be quite justified.

In many (most?) we medicate symptoms today: take the pain away. Pain control nurses get paid a LOT of money. And hospitals get sued if the patient is not “comfortable”. That’s not medicine, that’s drug abuse.

The book does document everyone’s failures here: the Doctors who failed to deal well with the culture and the Hmongs who refused to imagine any other way. The coma arose (if I remember correctly) from the Doctors not taking the time to ensure proper understanding in the family. But, again: we don’t have a way to cure the disease - just manage it. And, in some cultures, that altered state of consciousness is highly valued (not sure about the Hmong).

So… what are we medicating?

Hmong culture, too, hasn’t a way to cure the disease: just manage it. If they had been left alone, the coma wouldn’t have happened.

But would it have been right to do so?

You point to the issue of the Mormons, but I think the better place to look is Terri Schiavo (pardon the spelling). The issue with Terri got compressed into taking her off of life support. “Is life support valuable” is the better question. 30 or 40 years ago, Terri would have died anyway - without the false hope offered by modern medicine: a hope that says “we might be able to do more later… maybe not, but spend your money now.”

The Hmong people, in some respects, should never have been here. 50 or 60 years ago, I doubt they’d even heard of us. Then the US involved them in her dirty war in south-east Asia and had to whisk them away to a foreign land just to keep them from being killed. One of the results of that was this girl’s death.

My point is that neither science no our culture has all the right answers. Nor should we impose them on others.

I feel safe admitting that.

There are no easy answers. Multiculturalism is often used as an easy answer to a much harder task, the task of evaluating, as best one can, the differing belief structures to reach truth (small “t” not capital “T”). There are times when one must say that the belief structure is not correct (as far as one knows) and one must intervene.

On the other hand, the recent raid on a Mormon polygamist household illustrates the dangers of allowing preconceptions to guide one’s decisions. As I said, there are no easy answers, but certainly to not act, on the grounds of “multiculturalism”, is caving in to the easy answer.