Reflection on "A Use of Force"

The short story "A Use of Force" is written by the author William Carlos Williams. It's a story about a young girl who has symptoms of diphtheria, but won't let neither her parents nor the call-in doctor check to see if she is indeed infected. Her stubbornness leads the doctor and her parents to use force to open her mouth and see if she has the membrane typically associated with the illness on her throat. This event invites us to reflect upon and analyze the ethics of the doctor's choice. Was the use of extreme force in order to acquire a diagnosis justified? Does the doctor's admission that he enjoyed it have any effect on the morality of the event? Can this use of force also be classified as violence?

In my opinion, the use of force was indeed justified. The girl's stubbornness is hard for me to understand, but I suppose a reason could have been of the doctor confirming her fears of having diphtheria, a possibly lethal illness at the time. However, her stubbornness, even if understandable, was placing her entire family and anyone who came in contact with them in danger. Diphtheria could be very infectious, and could be transmitted by simple physical contact, or by breathing the "aerosolized secretions" of those infected. A diagnosis was needed for proper action (probably isolation) to be taken, but the girl was getting in the way of that. If others lived can be saved by using it, then I believe that certain force can be justified.

However, the doctor explicitly admits that he received joy from this event. To quote his own words, "I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to attack her." I find this extremely disturbing, to say the least. Although it was possibly his "animal nature" taking control of him, to see that someone who is supposed to be a healer receive pleasure out of causing pain is very off-putting. The morality of his choice and our attitude towards it certainly changes after learning this, but I still believe that, even if only for the health of her family, the use of force was justified.

Finally, can this use of force also be called violence? Yes, sadly. According to Merriam-Webster, violence is defined as "the use of physical force to harm someone, property, etc." or as "great destructive force or energy." The event described in the short story applies to both definitions. However, even when looking at it as violence instead of force, I still believe that, although another method could have been better (I'm not sure if anesthesia of some kind existed at the time), the girl's diagnosis was much too important, and therefore, the violence was justified.