You're Human, You're an Equal

Marxism believes that society should provide for people based on one’s needs, not according to one’s ability. It also holds the ideology that people should be valued because they are humans, not because they hold supreme superiority to others in society (Mullaly, 2007).

I have a friend whose mother struggles with Multiple Sclerosis. I know this friend through a sport we both play in the community. Being the proud mother that she is, Susan* is almost always in attendance of my friends’ games. When she is there, she is cheering on her daughter with a smile on her face. Over the summer, Susan found out that she was to become the recipient of a surgery called the Liberation Procedure.

The Liberation Procedure is a procedure designed to make living with MS less debilitating, and less painful. This procedure was the result of research done by Paulo Zamboni (Picard & Favaro, 2009) whose wife began to experience symptoms of MS at the age of 37. Paulo’s research suggests that MS is a vascular disease, and not an autoimmune condition, as previously thought. The Liberation Procedure was being performed in the United States when the opportunity arose for Susan to receive the treatment. Because Susan is a Canadian citizen, she and her family had to pay for the procedure, as well as the flights and accommodations for all family members, out of their own pocket.

Some of the other members of this sports community were very excited that Susan was given the opportunity for this procedure, but also wanted to find a way to help make this experience more affordable for the family, seeing as how they had no monetary assistance from the government or through Manitoba Health. These young ladies, I believe had a very Marxist approach. They saw Susan as a friend and mother, who needed help. These young ladies realized this family’s need, and saw that it was necessary to help accommodate them in any way possible. A Marxist approach to social welfare is similar, in that “Its major attributes are that social services should be distributed according to need; they should be universal, comprehensive, adequate, and free; prevention is a primary social welfare principle; and there should be participation on the part of the people in determining policy.” (Mullaly, 2007, p. 149)

These young ladies worked in a very short time to get together a fundraiser so that Susan’s family would have to worry less about the financial aspect of this event, and instead focus on giving their attention to Susan and aid in her recovery. This fundraiser helped send Susan and her family to New York, where Susan underwent surgery. These young ladies were clearly driven by desire to help out another person in need. This desire to help those in need reflects the views of Karl Marx who “…was motivated by compassion and wanted to help a badly divided society create a new and just social order.” (Macionis, 2008, p. 90) Karl Marx strongly believed that everyone deserved equality, because everyone is human.

It is clear that these ladies had a very clear understanding of Susan. She is a wife, mother, sister, and friend, she is most certainly not a disabled person. These young women understood that Susan is equally as deserving as everyone else to live a healthy and long life, and I believe they did their best to show that with their selfless acts. 

*name has been changed

Kelsey

Macionis, J. J., & Gerber, L. M. (2008). Sociology (6^th Canadian ed.) Canada: Pearson Canada Inc.

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New Structural Social Work (3^rd ed.). Canada: Oxford University Press.

Picard, A., & Favaro, A. (2009, November 20). Researcher's labour of love leads to MS breakthrough. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/