The Moral Agony of Genie, a Feral Child

BurtWorm

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Fri Jan-19-07 11:07 AM
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The Moral Agony of Genie, a Feral Child

The following story, about a 13-year-old "wild child" from Arcadia, California, given the name Genie, raises an Everest of disturbing questions about science and society--particularly about the moral and societal obligations of scientists to be responsible for their human subjects, especially in such an extreme case as this one. It's amazing to think that even 25 years ago, there was no mechanism to protect this girl from her fate, both before she was "found" and after she had been rescued. There probably will never be a mechanism in place to prevent children from suffering at the hands of monstrous parents. It's difficult (for me, anyway) to imagine one that wouldn't cost the rest of us an intolerable amount of freedom under the watch of a potentially monstrous government. But how is it possible that the decent human beings who worked on the Genie Project (see below) allowed their precious subject to disappear from their view once the funding dried up? What kind of society can turn such a cold heart to an innocent victim like Genie?

But the reason I'm posting this in this forum is for the, perhaps, equally numerous relious/theological problems Genie raises, some of which might be relevant to the scientific problems referred to above. The most glaring question: What kind of *creation* (if that's a meaningful term) turns out tragedies like this one? Why is this particular body and mind visited, why this life indelibly stamped, with such exceptional suffering? I know there are boilerplate theodicies for such circumstances. I don't want to hear them. I want to know what people here really think and *feel* about the idea of a "god" who would punish this innocent child for no apparent good reason.

Personally I can accept--because it doesn't defy common sense--Nature's indifference to individual suffering. Nature is not a person. But I don't understand why anyone would invent and then worship a "God" who would permit such evil in the world. Can someone explain it to me?

Genie (feral child)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Genie is the name used for a feral child discovered by California authorities on November 4, 1970 in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia. ...

At the age of 20 months, Genie was just beginning to learn how to speak when a doctor told her family that she seemed to be developmentally disabled and possibly mildly retarded. Her father took the opinion to extremes, believing that she was profoundly retarded, and subjected her to severe confinement and ritual ill-treatment in an attempt to "protect" her.

Genie had spent her life locked in her bedroom. During the day, she was tied to a potty chair in diapers; and most nights, she was then bound in a sleeping bag and placed in an enclosed crib with a metal lid to keep her shut inside. Her father would beat her every time she vocalized and he barked and growled at her like a dog in order to keep her quiet; he also forbade his wife and son to ever speak to her. She became almost entirely mute, and knew only a few short words and phrases, such as "stopit" and "nomore."

Rescue

Genie was discovered at the age of 13, when her mother ran away from her husband and took Genie with her. On Nov 4, 1970, they came into a welfare office in Temple City, California to seek benefits for the blind. ...Her parents were charged with child abuse, and Genie was taken to a children's hospital in Los Angeles. Genie's mother, weak and almost blind, claimed she was herself a victim of abuse by Genie's father. The father committed suicide shortly after Genie's discovery.

...When interest in the case widened, Genie became the focus of an investigation to discover if there was a critical age threshold for language acquisition. Within a few months she had advanced to one-word answers and had learned to dress herself. Her doctors predicted complete success. They even screened François Truffaut's movie The Wild Child for ideas. Psychologist James Kent became her surrogate parent.

...

Loss of funds and interest

Despite Genie's relative success, the National Institute of Mental Health, which had funded the project, grew concerned about the lack of scientific research data generated. In 1974 the Institute cut off funding. The following year the Riglers decided to discontinue their foster parenting. Genie had not yet learned full grammatical English and only went so far as phrases like "Applesauce buy store."

Later childhood

In 1975, Genie was returned to the custody of her mother, who had been acquitted of child abuse and wished to care for her daughter. After a few months, the mother found that taking care of Genie was too difficult, and Genie was transferred to a succession of six more foster homes. In some of the homes she was physically abused and harassed, and her development regressed severely, returning to her coping mechanism of silence, and adding a new fear of opening her mouth. The new fear of opening her mouth developed after being severely punished for vomiting in one of her foster homes; she didn't want to open her mouth, even to speak, for fear of vomiting and facing punishment again (Nova).

The original research team heard nothing more about Genie until her mother sued them for excessive and outrageous testing and claimed the researchers gave testing priority over Genie's welfare, pushing her beyond the limits of her endurance. The case was eventually settled.

Present condition

Genie now lives in a sheltered accommodation in an undisclosed location in Southern California; it is at least her sixth adult foster home. Her mother died ca. 2002-2003. Genie has an older brother who is still living.

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The Nova Documentary: Genie - Secrets of a Wild Child

Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQnBDGGL-Z4

Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrMI6i-B3Yw

Transcript:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html