Charity has no place at hospital
Ronald McDonald House Charity can be seen as a very clever marketing ploy . . . or conscience money . . . or a genuine attempt to help the families of seriously ill children.
Should people in need of help be too fussy about who provides that help?
Quoting old proverbs like ‘‘a drowning man will clutch at straws’’ or ‘‘beggars can’t be choosers’’ is all very well but should we accept help from just anyone without question?
That is the moral dilemma facing some members of the Waikato District Health Board following an offer from Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand about the possibility of establishing a facility at the Hamilton hospital site or elsewhere. The charity supports sick children and their families but many people see McDonald’s as one of the causes of many diet-related illnesses in children and young adults. An estimated 3000 New Zealanders die from obesity each year and fatty fast food is listed as one of the contributing causes.
Other health boards have declined similar offers also because of the association of McDonald’s with health problems which in turn creates the need for the free services provided by Ronald McDonald House.
However the jury is still out on just how much damage fast food does to the health of young people compared to sugary drinks, alcohol, tobacco and drugs. The occasional convenient fast food meal is probably harmless but for too many young people it is several times a week.
In our neoliberal market-led economy anyone can make money from almost anything regardless of the harm to innocent people. We saw that with the difficulty government had eventually bringing an end to the sale of dangerous but legal psychoactive substances not long ago.
If it were only the elected members of district health boards raising the question it would be easier to find an answer, but they are supported by a number of senior health professionals who are uncomfortable with the association of a suspected cause of obesity with hospitals. Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Dr Alistair Humphrey is one of several senior professionals speaking out against the charity, which he claims makes a lot of money out of selling a product that is killing a lot of New Zealanders.
He went further by comparing McDonald’s and its charity to Escobar, who was revered for building homes for the poor in Colombia, despite killing 4000 people.
While that might be overstating the case, when health professionals at that level raise serious issues about child health, we need to listen very carefully.
Ronald McDonald House Charity can be seen as a very clever marketing ploy, which it undoubtedly is, or conscience money, some of which comes from public donations, or a genuine attempt to help the families of seriously ill children and thousands of people will testify to that.
In the opinion of many, a token contribution is inadequate atonement for causing harm, particularly for financial gain. Help from those creating the need, or suspected of creating the need, merely attempts to justify the unjustifiable. It is morally unjustifiable to make huge profits by selling anything which has the potential to harm the health of children, particularly when they are not in a position to make an informed choice as adults are with alcohol and tobacco.
There is, however, the undeniable fact that we don’t have to buy McDonald’s, and I am one who would rather go hungry than eat at any of the many international junk food franchises we have here, simply as a matter of principle. I would also rather stay in a cheap backpackers’ than Ronald McDonald House for the same reason. That might sound a bit like old fashioned high principle, and perhaps it is, but would we accept a free fire extinguisher from a suspected arsonist, a lung health clinic from a tobacco company or paint cleaner from a graffiti artist? In the end, it is matter of personal choice and everyone should be free to make their own.
There is also the vexed question of corporate sponsorship of something as essential as our public health service and associated support systems. There is no free lunch, at McDonald’s or anywhere else, and corporate sponsorship always comes with an expected quid pro quo. While genuine charities and thousands of volunteers do provide support services to hospitals, few are so closely associated with the perceived cause of the ill health as Ronald McDonald House.
For that reason alone, the Waikato District Health Board should not allow Ronald McDonald House to be located on the hospital site. That should not preclude the charity from establishing a facility somewhere else near the hospital for those who want to use it.