list. But this is not just a problem for women. Poor health prevents women from fully contributing to our country’s development. Nearly 75 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 49 are employed in the formal or informal sectors. And women and girls of all ages carry out significant unpaid labor in the home and in the community. Now that we have a woman minister, we ask you to take the lead on this and see that women’s rights are recognized and protected by the national health system.” • Father of a child who died of leukemia: “From the time my daughter fell sick, at age 13, until she died two years later, we begged for help. We called on our parliamentary delegate, and though it took months to arrange, he got us in to see some of the country’s best doctors here in the capital. ‘They are good doctors,’ he told us, ‘trained in America and Europe. They know the latest in medical science.’ Yet when they told us the cost of the only medicines that might help her, there was nothing we could do. A course of treatment would have been more than I, my wife, and both of my brothers could earn in ten years. Now I have lost my daughter Carmella, who was so smart and so beautiful and so motivated. Minister, with all due respect, she used to joke that she hoped you did not become president because she wanted to be the first woman president of our country. I am sorry to get so upset, but my daughter had a right to be treated, to try to live, and she was denied that. We say we are a country that respects human rights. Well, if we do, we need to give priority to treating the Carmellas among us. What is most hard for me is that I know that if I were a rich landowner, she might be with us here today. Sudamerica failed me and I failed her.” • Catholic priest: “This is a Catholic country and our policies should reflect our values, not enable the use of dangerous substances that can be used to destroy holy life. For example, you should not put misoprostol on this EML. There are other ways to save the life of a woman hemorrhaging during childbirth. But this misoprostol is a dangerous drug. It is widely used illegally to induce abortions. Likewise, in many places we know that morphine is used to hasten the deaths of people who are dying. We cannot spend our national budget on something that can be used to kill the unborn or our elders before their appointed times. Our budget should be spent to save our citizens—not interfere with God’s will by preventing their conception. We should instead focus on prenatal and primary care, medicines for common diseases, and providing spiritual succor to those who suffer.” • Spokeswoman for the National Association of Sudamerica’s Poor: “The poorest people in this country suffer the most from bad health and lack of 206
Case Study A