- There are no qualified midwifes in the area.
- If the newborn baby had a breathing problem, there would be no machines and once again, no fast transport to take them to the hospital.
- The state law says that all midwifes should be qualified nurses. There should be no unqualified midwifes.
- If she has enough experience to become a qualified midwife, why don’t she become one?
- The Amish parents admitted that Sykes delivered all six of their children.
- The Amish also said that there are lots of disabilities in the Amish communities.
- Although she does do checks on her patients, if there is a problem, there will be no doctors or nurses in the area for her to quickly go and call. She cannot phone them because there are no mobiles telephones or telephones boots.
- The ambulance man (head of social services) asked the Amish parents if Lucille Sykes was charging them for delivering babies. Since they don’t lie, they replied ‘yes.’
The Case for the Defence-
- Lucille Sykes is doing her best to help maintain the Amish’s simple lifestyle and that prosecuting her threatens that lifestyle in all Amish communities in the state.
- Lucille Sykes has thirteen years of relevant experience.
- She is well respected by the Amish community and also by the midwife community.
- There are much worse people going around in the Amish community doing that.
- Lucille has an excellent report and record of experience.
- She has spent ten years delivering babies for the Amish community.
- Lucille Sykes has enough experience to be a qualified midwife.
- Lucille Sykes has been with Salina Walters the president of Pennsylvania Midwives Association, for thirteen years and she knows that Lucille and the other unqualified midwifes are a training group.
- In total, she has delivered six hundred babies for families in the Amish community.
- Out of the six hundred babies she has delivered, Eugene Montone mentioned that there was no problem with either of the deliveries.
- The Amish parents said that all Lucille Sykes is doing is helping the Amish community out and that she is a blessing from god.
- Salina Walters said that Most of the Amish are born at home and die at home, this is their way and do it by their choice.
- The Amish view childbirth not as a medical problem but as a special and blessed time in their lives so therefore going to hospital and getting their babies delivered by nurse would be breaking their tradition and home is precious to them.
- Kathy Liebler, a representative said that there have been no records of complaints or disciplinary actions against midwifes.
- Salina Walters said that most of the thirty-one members of her organization work covertly and are not licensed by the state.
- Lucille not only delivers babies but also provides parental care. She checks the client’s blood pressure, checks their weight and also listens to the heartbeat of the foetus. She also checks their urine for any possible signs of health problems.
- The Amish prefer to have their babies at home because of the impersonal treatment and the high cost at the hospitals.
- John Hostetler said that they want more of a family orientation. The issue of whether or not a midwife is licence wouldn’t matter to the Amish.
- John Hostetler also mentioned that if any complications did occur during a delivery in an Amish home, Lucille goes to the nearest home with a phone and call for medical help.
- The Amish don’t believe in using modern technology and believe in keeping separate. By give birth to a child in hospital, it would be breaking their tradition.
Judge and Jury
Lucille Sykes has been found guilty. She had been working as an unregistered midwife exclusive of qualifications or a licence. Lucille knew she was doing the immoral thing and was also told that she was breaking the law. The director of children and youth services Eugene Montone told her that he would file charges against her if she sustained delivering babies. Two weeks later she did it again and delivered another baby behind her house for the Amish. She completely ignored what she had been told and deserves to be punished. If she stuck to her promise, a dilemma wouldn’t have occurred, yet she didn’t and made matters of inferior quality.
The Amish don’t believe in modern technology and transportation; nevertheless, they broke their tradition by going to Sykes home by an ambulance. If they broke their tradition by undertaking that, they could indubitably be capable of going to the hospital and have their child delivered there. Lucille Sykes performs checks on her clients, but there is no way she can get in touch with a doctor or a qualified midwife within five to ten minutes unless she rapidly sets off on foot to find one or travels by the horse and carriage which will take them ages.
If they Amish attend a hospital, they will be provided with all the accurate and correct equipment and midwifes that have had a nursing degree to become a midwife, three years off experience to become a nurse and midwifery exams. The hospital will supply the Amish community with all the care and management they need. Everyone should be treated with equality in view of the fact that we all live under the same laws, which should be followed. If Lucille Sykes is allowed to do it, other women out there will be influenced and the number of unqualified midwives will be unimaginable. If she is charged and punished, people will think twice before they act. If it’s not stopped, it will be both impossible and unfair to stop them since someone like Lucille Sykes wasn’t dealt with.
In life, there will be and will have to be a time where you will have to sacrifice one or more things. The Amish community should acknowledge that a newborn baby should be born in an environment, which contains the baby’s requirements and care. The Amish home doesn’t have what the baby needs and nor does Lucille Sykes. Lucille has given her self a bad reputation and has been counted as being greedy for money. She carried on because she was either greedy or desperate for the money.
If she wasn’t, she could have taken the degree and qualifications. It is thoroughly unreasonable and unfair that people have to go through years of qualifications, training and nursing to get to be a qualified midwife where as some one like Lucille Sykes gets the easy way out of it. The law states that licensed midwifes in Pennsylvania must also pass an examination, Lucille hasn’t got any evidence or proof to show she is licensed or qualified. Maybe a problem hasn’t occurred yet, it might not even occur for quiet a while, but when one does, the lack of responsibility on the unqualified midwife will be excruciating for them.
Hitiksha Patel 10A