The situation near the corner of East Avenue and Lisbon Street (Monday, Dec. 7), when a woman’s lifeless body was left on public display to be photographed by sickening rubberneckers, simply cannot go unremarked.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, “dignity” is, “The state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.” There wasn’t any dignity in how Monday’s tragedy was handled.

I can’t think of a clearer example of what happens when an organization becomes bureaucratized and everything is reduced to “resources” — mere beans to be counted.

Drexel White (one of the bureaucratic chieftains for Maine Emergency Medical Services), in the tradition of bureaucrats the world over, hid behind the inhuman rules, labeled “protocol.” He claimed a body lying on the street and not in need of medical services is no different than a loved one dying peacefully in her bed at home.

Really? What a sad, sad, shameful thing to say; sadder if actually believed.

If those are the ethics of the people drawing up Maine Emergency Medical Service “protocols,” then that agency is in a sad place. Medical professionals treating humans as inert objects drawing on precious “resources” as a matter of “protocol” is beyond sad.

There is no way to sugarcoat the disgusting nature of Monday’s episode, no matter how many rules the bureaucratic bean-counters hide behind. It was disgusting, inhuman and an utterly shameful display of soullessness. If it reflects the public’s collective moral compass, we are in deep trouble.

Andrew and Lucille Hall, Lewiston

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