Smart or dumb?

Like most people (in the UK) I have been following the Ashya King story as it's been unravelling in the media these last few days, and like many people, I suspect something more than a lack of a favoured treatment is playing out here. The decision today to reunite the parents with their sick child is almost certainly a pragmatic one based on current circumstances but since these circumstances were created by the parents themselves against the advice of medical professionals I can't decide whether these people are incredibly stupid or really clever. On the one hand they are Jehovah's Witnesses and whilst this fact says nothing about how much they love their child it does say something about how gullible and prone to believing nonsense they are, particularly when it comes to shunning life saving medical treatment. On the other hand I would imagine that, as a parent, when you're at wits end and desperate to find something that might help your dying child, then causing a huge media storm and publicising your plight to hundreds of millions of potentially sympathetic parents around the world is a pretty clever social media strategy for helping to get what you want.

I'm sure parents the world over wonder to what lengths they would go if faced with this dilemma, I certainly do! Anyway, regardless of any misguided motives and political fall-out, I wish this little boy well and hope he gets whatever sensible treatment he needs, there but for the grace of Nick Clegg etc..