Entry 6: Perpetuality
Today I am going to discuss something that I have recently witnessed that greatly disturbed me.
A few weeks ago, my twin sister and I were returning home from Mac's after doing a covert candy run in preparation for our cottage visit the next day (not a healthy choice, but it was a long weekend with our cousins). It was then that we saw something that I found incredibly upsetting. A young mother with a three-year-old in a stroller and her around ten year old son walking together. (The horror!) The part that upset me was the fact that the ten year old boy was smoking a cigarette right in front of his mother. That boy was younger than my youngest sister and was already smoking. My immediate reaction was "don't react! Don't stare too long!" Afterwards, though, I was extremely upset with the mother for allowing her son to develop a tobacco addiction- maybe even feeding it- at such a young age.
As I have learned from my biology class, every other add out there, and my Dad’s loving lectures (See Entry 1 if you do not understand the joke), smoking can have extreme adverse health effects. Including, but not limited to, lung cancer, the destruction of alveoli, tar build-up in the lungs, aortal clogging, tooth decay, gum cancer, and brain clotting. Smoking causes these health problems and more in people who started smoking as adults. I can only imagine what that young boy’s early smoking habit will do to his body and life-span.
Thankfully, only 4% of youth in Canada between grades 6-12 smoke. Anti-smoking campaigns and scare tactics have done some pretty amazing work in discouraging youth from smoking nationwide. Unfortunately, in Ontario the number youth who have tried smoking jumps to 21% (stats Canada).
Clearly after having learned the adverse effects of smoking, parents began to prevent their children from picking up the habit. It became an ethical responsibility, the way to give your children the best chance in life to teach them the dangers of smoking (Thanks Dad!). Why, then, is this mother allowing her son to smoke and maybe even funding his habit?
The only explanation that I can come up with for this is that the habit of smoking was something that was almost hereditary: perhaps her parents smoked, she smokes and grew up not thinking that smoking was bad (judging from the lit cigarette that was in her hand), and therefore she sees no reason why she should bar her son from doing the same. In fact, a study in 2011 showed that children with parents who smoked were 15-21% more likely to pick up the habit than children with non-smoking parents. Habits and beliefs that are inherited are very hard to get rid of. Considering this and the ethical aspect of the issue, the following knowledge claim can be formed:
The perpetuated habit of smoking and beliefs surrounding smoking in the boy’s family prevented his mother from taking action to stop him from picking up the habit.
From that knowledge claim, the following knowledge question can be formed:
To what extent do inherited beliefs influence ethical choices?
This question can very easily be applied to another real-life situation that is very near and dear to my heart: homophobia. As is beautifully demonstrated by Westborough Baptist Church members, homophobia is a belief that is greatly influenced by the beliefs of parents and grandparents. The Westborough Baptist Church children follow what their parents taught them and their parents follow what Gramps (the late Pastor Phelps) taught them. While teachers can tell kids with varying conviction that being part of the LGBTQ community is totally fine, when beliefs are so strongly ingrained in youth they are very hard to change. This explains why many US states still have not legalized gay marriage. The beliefs that have been held by people concerning homosexuality and LGBTQ rights have been ingrained in people for generations and are only slowly now beginning to change despite the fact that the only ethical choice is to give all people equal rights, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Works cited:
http://consumer.healthday.com/mental-health-information-25/addiction-news-6/if-parents-ever-smoked-teens-may-be-more-likely-to-light-up-678883.html
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/tobac-tabac/research-recherche/stat/_survey-sondage_2012-2013/result-eng.php
A few weeks ago, my twin sister and I were returning home from Mac's after doing a covert candy run in preparation for our cottage visit the next day (not a healthy choice, but it was a long weekend with our cousins). It was then that we saw something that I found incredibly upsetting. A young mother with a three-year-old in a stroller and her around ten year old son walking together. (The horror!) The part that upset me was the fact that the ten year old boy was smoking a cigarette right in front of his mother. That boy was younger than my youngest sister and was already smoking. My immediate reaction was "don't react! Don't stare too long!" Afterwards, though, I was extremely upset with the mother for allowing her son to develop a tobacco addiction- maybe even feeding it- at such a young age.
As I have learned from my biology class, every other add out there, and my Dad’s loving lectures (See Entry 1 if you do not understand the joke), smoking can have extreme adverse health effects. Including, but not limited to, lung cancer, the destruction of alveoli, tar build-up in the lungs, aortal clogging, tooth decay, gum cancer, and brain clotting. Smoking causes these health problems and more in people who started smoking as adults. I can only imagine what that young boy’s early smoking habit will do to his body and life-span.
Thankfully, only 4% of youth in Canada between grades 6-12 smoke. Anti-smoking campaigns and scare tactics have done some pretty amazing work in discouraging youth from smoking nationwide. Unfortunately, in Ontario the number youth who have tried smoking jumps to 21% (stats Canada).
Clearly after having learned the adverse effects of smoking, parents began to prevent their children from picking up the habit. It became an ethical responsibility, the way to give your children the best chance in life to teach them the dangers of smoking (Thanks Dad!). Why, then, is this mother allowing her son to smoke and maybe even funding his habit?
The only explanation that I can come up with for this is that the habit of smoking was something that was almost hereditary: perhaps her parents smoked, she smokes and grew up not thinking that smoking was bad (judging from the lit cigarette that was in her hand), and therefore she sees no reason why she should bar her son from doing the same. In fact, a study in 2011 showed that children with parents who smoked were 15-21% more likely to pick up the habit than children with non-smoking parents. Habits and beliefs that are inherited are very hard to get rid of. Considering this and the ethical aspect of the issue, the following knowledge claim can be formed:
The perpetuated habit of smoking and beliefs surrounding smoking in the boy’s family prevented his mother from taking action to stop him from picking up the habit.
From that knowledge claim, the following knowledge question can be formed:
To what extent do inherited beliefs influence ethical choices?
This question can very easily be applied to another real-life situation that is very near and dear to my heart: homophobia. As is beautifully demonstrated by Westborough Baptist Church members, homophobia is a belief that is greatly influenced by the beliefs of parents and grandparents. The Westborough Baptist Church children follow what their parents taught them and their parents follow what Gramps (the late Pastor Phelps) taught them. While teachers can tell kids with varying conviction that being part of the LGBTQ community is totally fine, when beliefs are so strongly ingrained in youth they are very hard to change. This explains why many US states still have not legalized gay marriage. The beliefs that have been held by people concerning homosexuality and LGBTQ rights have been ingrained in people for generations and are only slowly now beginning to change despite the fact that the only ethical choice is to give all people equal rights, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Works cited:
http://consumer.healthday.com/mental-health-information-25/addiction-news-6/if-parents-ever-smoked-teens-may-be-more-likely-to-light-up-678883.html
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/tobac-tabac/research-recherche/stat/_survey-sondage_2012-2013/result-eng.php