A young Seattle man, Said Aba Sheikh, was beaten to a pulp by some poorly supervised foster children. Sheikh suffered brain damage and other debilitating injuries that will require medical attention for the rest of his life. A jury ruled that the state Department of Social and Health Services was negligent in its poor oversight of the foster kids, and awarded the DSHS to pay Sheikh $8.8 million.
Today's editorial in Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Society must take care of Said Aba Sheikh for the rest of his life.Yes, society should pay, as long as the taxpayers don't have to. The P-I deserves a Nobel Prize in Economics for coming up with that one.A King County jury understood that critical point and ruled in his favor against the state Department of Social and Health Services. But the jury's finding that the state was responsible for criminal acts by a group of young thugs cries out for an appeal.
Are taxpayers, through a state agency, responsible when kids in foster care join in attacking another teenager, leaving him with permanent physical and mental disabilities? On that point, we're not so sure. And DSHS should seek an answer from higher courts.
No matter who pays, the one prediction I'm willing to make is that nobody at the DSHS will lose their job or their pension because of this.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 19, 2003 07:00 AMWho is this "Society" person anyway? Must have lots of bucks.
Posted by: Parabellum on November 19, 2003 05:30 AMWow! This is so polluted a thought process that I had to read the full editorial a couple of times. These guys should take a class in writing or something.
The point the editorial was trying to make was that if the US had universal health care, then everyone would be covered (and no one would need to be held financially responsible). While this means that there would be fewer lawsuits and perhaps a different outcome in this case (the jury wanted to find someone to pay for Said Aba Sheikh's medical care and perhaps wasn't to concerned with who was actually responsible), this has got to be one of the lamest arguments for universal health care ever advanced. I mean, we could have universal every-kind-of-insurance-under-the-sun and then completely do away with the tort system.
Posted by: Simon on November 19, 2003 03:21 PM"It's a fair cop, but Society's to blame."
"Right, we'll be charging them instead."
I wonder if they would have taken the stand if the guy's name was Morty Gottlieb instead of Said Abu Sheikh?
Posted by: J. Lichty on November 20, 2003 09:00 AM