Dr. Ralph Didlake
Appearances
Under Yazoo Clay
Like They’re Reaching Out to Me
We have, in a way, inherited these patients, and we want to care for them in the very best way we can. We need to set a standard, we need to be an example, and we need to treat these as our patients.
Under Yazoo Clay
Like They’re Reaching Out to Me
Even in the pediatric world, parents don't give consent for their children. They give permission for their children. That's the modern bioethics theories at the moment.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
The space pressures for using the last undeveloped land on the campus were increasing, and the Medical Wills Center was doing long-term planning, 25- and 50-year planning, so this was part of the discussion.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
Some bones had been discovered several years before when an old laundry building was being built. And at that point, the institution was reminded that there's a cemetery. So fast forward to the 2011 timeframe, a new road construction project was started and almost immediately they ran into burials. And at that time, the original 66 burials were exhumed for the road project.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
The 1970s legislation is pretty broad, and then there was an amendment of that that was worded to disinter-rearrange. So... We could probably have shoehorned almost anything into that language, but it would have been a terrible idea.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
I'm Ralph Didlake. I am director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. I was a surgeon for 25 years and then went into administrative positions.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
I was very interested in the problem. I found it to be a challenging nut to crack, both from an administrative efficiency standpoint and from a bioethics standpoint. So yes, did I seek it out? I'm not sure I overtly sought it out, but I didn't run away from it. And at that time, I was director of the Bioethics Center, and I kept hearing various plans brought forward.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
And I felt very strongly that whatever plan was selected, whatever was done with the land or the remains had to be ethical. It had to be not just respectful and ethical, but it needed to fit well into a southern community. It had to have a Southern ethos about it.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
And I remembered a line from William Faulkner's The Reavers, where he, paraphrasing, he said, Southerners don't fear death, but they take funerals very seriously.