SP Times 14-May-99: Prosecutor defends Scientology charges
deomorto@aol.com (DeoMorto)
May 1999 01:47:13

Mark Brehob writes:

The hospital felt she was mentally capable when they released her. I believe that that part of the argument may well hold up. HOWEVER the part that should not hold up is the lack of medical help for her physical condition. As I understand Scientology belief they believe they can cure physical problems but they have no prohibition against medical care. If she denined medical care it went beyond what she would have expected to have consented to. LRH was so worried about the FDA that he made it VERY clear that the CoS should have people in good physical shape before most services. The IR may be an execption to that, but I don't believe it is explicate.

Further I read the IR logs as indicating her desire to leave. Enough said.

Any ex-CoS members care to comment?

DeoMorto replies:

Well I will take a swing at this..

First of all there is no doubt that competent professional medical help should have been sought for Lisa. There is no excuse at all for what happened. There isn't even any excuse in Scientology literature AFAIK (or at least as far as I remember). There is no prohibition that I am aware of that would have stopped someone calling 911 even on that last fateful night.

So how could such a catastrophe occur?

I think it is a combination of arrogance and cowardice.

The arrogance stems from the writings of Hubbard. First of all scientologists believe that ONLY Hubbard knew how to resolve mental illness - ONLY Hubbard (my emphasis). Part of that belief is that any difficulty has a very simple, magical, solution that if found, instantly (and I mean instantly) resolves. To put this into perspective - everyone who was involved with Lisa was expecting that at any minute they would hit the "right item" and everything would suddenly be solved.

For someone to have picked up the phone and dialled 911 would have meant that they were publicly announcing that the 'tech" had not worked. They would have been crucified (excuse the religious metaphor) for doing it. First of all they would have been guilty of the High Crime (Suppressive Act) of Pronouncing a Scientologist guilty of the standard practice of scientology. What would also have happened is that whoever would have called in the paramedics or whatever - assuming Lisa would have survived if they had been called in in time - would also have been nailed because they had not applied the right "tech" - this is of course, self fulfilling, how do you know the right tech was applied - the person got better - if they got worse the correct tech was not applied ergo scientology always works...

The sad part for me personally - and probably for a lot of other ex-SO and ex-Scientologists is that not one person in that whole group of people, supposedly the most ethical people on the planet - had the courage to defy their surroundings and their peers and actually do something to save the life of another. All of them kept their heads in the sand and hoped that someting, anything, would work right up until it was too late.

There are two things in this whole thing that I personally find reprehensible beyond belief (as an ex scientologist)

a) That someone, anyone, would lack the courage to stand up for the rights of a helpless individual because they were afraid of the consequences.

b) the sheer lying and PR that Rinder and Abelson indulged in after it all became public.

The prosecution is right to target the organization because it is the organization, its policies, its insistence that people toe the line, shut up and conform that enabled this situation to end as it did.

It strikes me that the CofS is in a cleft stick of its own making here a) If Lisa was incapable then they are guilty of neglect for not ensuring that she received competent medical help b) if she was capable (as Rinder and Abelson claimed in the intial press interviews) then she was being held against her expressed will.

I dunno but it seems to me that this is nothing to do with "religious freedom" - its about cowardice and arrogance.

DeoMorto - the truly censored.