Should severely disabled newborn babies be kept alive at any cost or be “mercifully” freed from their life of suffering? The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists considers "the ethics of prolonging life in fetuses and the newborn" should be debated.
The college has submitted evidence to the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, proposing an open discussion about the ethics of euthanasia for the most severely damaged of newborn babies. The option to end the suffering of a severely disabled newborn baby - who might have been aborted if the parents had known earlier the extent of its disabilities and potential suffering - should be discussed.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is investigating the implications of advances which enable babies to be born little more than halfway through pregnancy and kept alive. Very premature babies run a higher risk of brain damage and disability. Most die at 22 weeks (98%), though by 26 weeks 80% survive. Babies born before 25 weeks are not given medical treatment in the Netherlands and euthanasia is permitted in certain conditions. Recent studies show the rate of preterm babies is increasing.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists wants a discussion over whether "deliberate intervention" to cause death should be legalized, as a merciful ending of the babies’ suffering. The college said it was not necessarily in favor of the move, but felt it should be debated.
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In related news, the next L'arche prayer evening takes place on the 3rd Monday of November.
"The option to end the suffering of a severely disabled newborn baby - who might have been aborted if the parents had known earlier the extent of its disabilities and potential suffering - should be discussed."
Yikes. So possible suffering should outweigh love? hope? blessing? grace? life? That thing up there (next to the clouded crystal ball) is the top of the slippery slope.
Posted by: Stephanie | November 09, 2006 at 10:16 PM
Yes, it's quite a series of thoughts coming from the RCOG. It really is about that clouded crystal ball thing - the idea of a determinism in which the future for a person is necessarily predicted. And what exactly is the "cut off" timeline for a "newborn" to have its "suffering ended"? This stuff really needs to be addressed.
Posted by: joseph | November 10, 2006 at 12:33 PM
Any doctor who suggested anything of the kind to me would have got this response: Over My Dead Body.
Posted by: Mrs. Falstaff | March 23, 2007 at 04:41 PM