Will they let the baby in?

CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen reported yesterday from Haiti about a baby dug up from the rubble, surviving under the debris for more than 24 hours without food and water.  She had a broken rib and respiratory issues.  The only way for her to stay alive and make it through is to be flown to Miami so she can receive proper medical care.  If she remains in Haiti, she’s good as dead due to the lack of medical facilities.  As they get her ready for the flight to Miami, the reporter puts forward two questions:

a) Given her critical condition, will she survive the two-hour trip to Miami?

b) If she does, will the U.S. immigration authorities let her in because she has no identity papers and no visa?

If you were the Belgian doctor responsible for your medical team’s safety and well being and your group’s security is threatened while doing humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake, would you pull out your team amidst the “writhing in pain and grasping at life” victims who will die if they cannot be administered the most basic medical aid in the next 24 hours?  Which do you put first, your team’s safety or the victims’ survival?

If you have a poor relative showing up on your doorstep to borrow money because she is out of a job, has four kids to feed at home and her husband has deserted her, do you lecture her on the poor choices she’s made in her life or are you going to offer her some help?

If you have a 20 year old student who habitually shows up at school late because he has to work late nights in a restaurant to provide for himself, do you let him in your class or reprimand him for not following school rules about punctuality and attendance?  Would your decision be influenced if you know that he was a refugee who fled a war-torn country at age 14?  He has been separated from his family since.  He heard news two years ago that his entire family was killed in a cross fire between the army and the Taliban.   He’s doing poorly in class, but he tries and shows up as much as he can.  Would you still fail him knowing this might be all he’s got?

Rules and regulations are designed to provide order and efficiency in conducting our everyday business.  But in the midst of a disaster or the absence of order itself and in desperate situations, the rules of the game change.  So the question that begs is should we continue following the laws that instruct us to behave, act and decide in a certain manner, or do we obey our own judgment when a situation calls for it?

Every human being has a built-in moral compass.  We do things not because they are politically correct.  Not because they are socially acceptable.  Not because they are economically viable.  Not because they are consistent with our cultural tendencies.  We give help, disobey regulations, and go against everything we were taught if it means it’s going to save a life or give somebody hope.

We do it because we are human.

And that reason alone trumps any other concern above everything else.

CNN news update: they let the baby in.  She’s in intensive care and she’s recovering very well.