Healthcare has nothing to do with this. This is a straight F-up of Homeland Security. To them an illegal has little rights.
The sad part is that the system does not care about the level of function of the foreign resident. The man that died was an engineer, with a job in a software company, married with TWO US born kids. It should be considered a crime vs. humanity to separate a man from his wife and two kids like that. It's just sad that it's acceptable and acted on legally is the US.
Health Care is one area where, most certainly, Kantian ethics should apply. There ought to be a respect for the humanity of the patient as its driving force. It is first precept of good health care, as a corollary to the often referenced, "do no harm". Well, in this case, harm was done particularly because health care professionals lacked that respect for the humanity of a patient, and became little more than bureaucrats and security guards. The job of a BOP (Bureau of Prisons) health professional is to treat the patient as best as he or she could. Surely, they are also trained in security maneuvers, and have seen detainees try to 'put one over' on others. But, the primary concern of a health professional ought to be health care. The minute you start to suspect every patient as a malingerer or a person who cannot be trusted, you abandon a common humanity where people may hurt, suffer, and even die from disease right in front of you- because you didn't take them seriously from that first point of contact. Perhaps the greatest propensity for that is in such a setting. But, being a good health professional does not negate quality security in a detention setting. Whereas, being a security guard and nothing else, negates all the precepts and golden rules of health care.
I have been meaning to come back to this thread to give my long-winded take on this unfortunate circumstance. It really cuts at the core of what health care in a detention setting ought to be, and whether we as a country, could be both vigilant, but also respectful of a common humanity and identify the health needs even in people who may be repulsive to you- but in need. That's one of America's greatest values- we ought to be above cruel and unusual punishment.
With a lack of a positive approach to these situations, the health provider becomes a judge, a jury, and an executioner- rather than the last hope of an innocent, yet wrongfully condemned man...
