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Title: | THE official British view from Nuffield Council of Bioethics | |||
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| Name: | PETER SM | | |||
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| City: | MELBOURNE | State: | AUSTRALIA | | |
| Let premature babies under 23 weeks die, doctors toldSarah Hall, health correspondent The Guardian, Thursday November 16 2006 "Premature babies born before they have been in the womb for 23 weeks should only be resuscitated in exceptional circumstances, according to recommendations expected to be adopted in hospitals throughout the UK. An infant born this early would only be given intensive care if the parents repeatedly requested it, while understanding the high likelihood that the baby could be severely disabled, and if the doctor agreed it was in the child`s best interests. But the assumption is that these cases would be exceptional, and that babies born at this stage should be allowed to die. Fewer than 300 babies a year are born this early, but of these just 1% survive to leave hospital. The controversial "quasi legal" recommendation, by the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, forms part of a week-by-week breakdown advising doctors how to treat babies born between 22 and 25 weeks - the borderline of "viability". The report, which was welcomed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, but which drew criticism from the BMA and some neonatologists, recommends that because it is "extremely rare" for babies born at or below 22 weeks to survive, such infants should not be resuscitated except as part of an approved research study -- |
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