UK Ethics Panel Recommends Withholding Treatment For Littlest
Preemies
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
November 16,
2006
LONDON, ENGLAND--An influential panel that reviews ethical issues
in medicine released a lengthy report Thursday, in which it called for British
doctors to be allowed to let some newborns die.
The 245-page report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics recommended
that doctors should not automatically provide life-sustaining treatment for
premature babies born at 22 weeks gestation or less, and that those born
between 22 and 23 weeks should only receive intensive treatment if the parents
request the care and doctors agree with the parents.
The report's authors said that just one percent of newborns born at 23
weeks survive long enough to leave the hospital and that those who do usually
live with severe disabilities.
The strict cut-off points outlined in the report are not supported by
the British Medical Association, which responded that such "blanket rules" do
not help individual parents or babies, and that each case should be considered
"on its merits and its own context".
Earlier this week, leaders of the Church of England issued a statement
saying that doctors should be allowed to withhold treatment from some preemies
and babies with disabilities even 'knowing it will possibly, probably, or even
certainly result in death'.
And one week earlier, the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists suggested that the deliberate killing of babies with
disabilities be considered as a treatment option. The college suggested in a
Sunday Times of London article that "active euthanasia" should be considered
for the overall good of families, and to keep parents from the emotional and
economic hardship of raising a child with disabilities.
Such statements have angered and worried many disability groups that
oppose legalizing euthanasia for babies and adults. The advocates have argued
that, among other things, making 'mercy killing' legal puts vulnerable people
at greater risk -- especially when the lives of people with disabilities are
considered less valuable and the cost of health care is so high. Such practices
also send the message that it is better to die than to live with a disability,
they say.
Related:
"Report: Don't save extreme preemies" (Reuters via
MSNBC)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15730874/
"Critical
care decisions in fetal and neonatal medicine: ethical issues" (Nuffield
Council on Bioethics)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/06/red/1116c.htm
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Reproduced here under special arrangement
with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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