A Selfie During The Procedure? Really?

CNN is reporting that Joan Rivers’ doctor took a selfie during the procedure in which she died.

When I encountered this information my initial thought was, “Really?”  That thought was quickly followed up by this one, “This is hard to believe.”  But that thought was very quickly followed by this one, “Sadly, I’m not surprised.”  This story is a reflection of some of the current troubles of our culture, i.e.:

We are obsessed with celebrity.

We seem to be increasingly more irresponsible.  (And this includes people in positions of great responsibility.)

We are extraordinarily self-centered.

We are losing a sense of what it means to behave with dignity.

None of the troubling matters which are mentioned above are new to the human race, of course, but it really does seem like these issues are continuing to increase in ways that are not healthy for a society.  It seems we are no longer ashamed of behaviors and attitudes that genuinely are shameful.  (I know that even using the word “shame” will seem ridiculous to some. It would be sort of amusing if someone read this and thought I should be ashamed of myself for using the word shame, huh?)

I understand doctors are human.  But I really want to believe that during a medical procedure a doctor is intensely and seriously focused on the task at hand not, “How am I going to get a fantastic selfie to share?”

There are people who are on the look-out for signs of moral decay within our culture. This story qualifies.