Discussions of poor neighborhoods often get caught in debates about responsibility. Some argue that disparities in longevity, for instance, are the result of young men making criminal choices, while others point toward failing urban policies, the destruction of manufacturing jobs, or the devastating effects of childhood lead poisoning. The culprit is contested because, depending on who is to blame, society may or may not morally be obligated to help.
Focusing on infant mortality clarifies the situation considerably: these children did nothing except be born on the wrong side of town, and many of them are losing their lives for it. The children born in Greenmount did not make bad choices, and they should not, in the richest country in the world, be abandoned to an infant mortality rate on par with a violent, developing nation.
