Individual Liberty v. Public Health
In Typhoid Mary, Mary Mallon is isolated on North Brother Island from 1907 to 1910 and again from 1915 until she dies in 1938. Mary Mallon is striped of her civil liberties and is unwillingly quarantined to preserve public health. This brings about an interesting issue, an issue that is just as important today with regard to AIDS as it was nearly a century ago with typhoid. Many have suggested, then and now, that if an individual endangers the public health of the community that that person's liberties should become secondary to the safety of the community. However, people that contract diseases are unwilling victims of it and they too are members of the community. There must be a balance. While protecting the larger community, the individual must too be protected. One's individual liberties should not be denied in order to protect public health. When facing a public health concern like a contagious disease, isolating people with the disease does not guarantee its elimination but it does rob these people of their freedoms. The purpose of this essay is to suggest that protecting an individual's liberties is just as important as protecting public health and that isolation should not be used as a method of preventing the spr
Mary Mallon arrives in the United States in 1896 at the age of fifteen. Clearly, isolating people deprives individuals of their god giving rights as human beings and as Americans. Mary Mallon's story teaches people that there must be fairness in public health policies, and that these policies must avoid discrimination and abuse of individuals who carry a disease. In the summer of 1906, a wealthy banker by the name of Charles Henry Warren rented a large house in Oyster Bay, Long Island as a vacation home for himself and his family. Such changes would move the country in a direction that fosters our value system of individual rights and liberties, while emphasizing the importance of public health. He tracks Mary Mallon to her new place of employment. This is when Mary Mallon becomes known as Typhoid Mary. What makes the situation worse is that these people are striped of their liberties and isolated in vain. Education is a far more powerful tool in preventing the spread of infectious diseases than isolation ever could be. Therefore she changes her name to Mrs. For a time, she complies with the requirements. This kind of policy will earn the confidence of all American citizens, sick and well alike, and provide them legitimate, long-term protection that is accommodating. She works in a laundry; however, this job does not sustain her in wages or in satisfaction. He approaches her with all the finesse of a bull in a china shop. Some of these inmates have compared these sanitariums to concentration camps.
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Acceptance Essays
