Euthanase disabled babies, say UK doctors
Pastor Dale Morgan
Euthanase disabled babies, say UK doctors
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November 06, 2006
The Sunday Times
LONDON: One of Britain's leading medical colleges is calling on the
health profession to consider permitting the euthanasia of seriously
disabled newborn babies.
The proposal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology is a
response to the number of such children surviving because of medical
advances.
The college is arguing that "active euthanasia" should be considered for
the overall good of families, and to to spare parents the emotional
burden and financial hardship of bringing up the hardest-hit babies.
"A very disabled child can mean a disabled family," the doctors say.
"If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were
available, they might have an impact on obstetric decision-making, even
preventing some late abortions, as some parents would be more confident
about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome."
Geneticists and medical ethicists supported the proposal - as did the
mother of a severely disabled child - but a prominent children's doctor
described it as social engineering.
The college called for active euthanasia of newborns to be considered as
part of an inquiry into the ethical issues raised by the policy of
prolonging life in newborn babies. The inquiry is being carried out by
the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
The proposal does not spell out which conditions might justify
euthanasia, but in The Netherlands mercy killing is permitted for babies
with a range of incurable conditions, including severe spina bifida and
the painful skin condition called epidermolysis bullosa.
Pieter Sauer, co-author of the Groningen Protocol, the Dutch national
guidelines on euthanasia of newborns, claims British pediatricians
unofficially perform mercy killings, and says the practice should be open.
"In England they have exactly the same type of patients as we have
here," Dr Sauer said. "English neonatologists gave me the indication
this is happening in their country."
Although euthanasia for severely handicapped newborn babies would be
contentious, some British doctors and ethicists are now in favour.
The professor of human genetics at University College London, Joy
Delhanty, said: "I would support these views. I think it is morally
wrong to strive to keep alive babies that are then going to suffer many
months or years of very ill health."
The college's submission was welcomed by John Harris, a member of the
Government's Human Genetics Commission and professor of bioethics at
Manchester University.
"We can terminate for serious fetal abnormality up to term but cannot
kill a newborn," he said. "What do people think has happened in the
passage down the birth canal to make it OK to kill the fetus at one end
of the birth canal but not at the other?"
Edna Kennedy of Newcastle upon Tyne, whose son suffered epidermolysis
bullosa, said: "In extremely controlled circumstances, where the baby is
really suffering, it should be an option for the mother."
However, John Wyatt, consultant neonatologist at University College
London hospital, said: "Intentional killing is not part of medical care."