British Doctors Leave Preemie to Die

This wasn't a case of *resuscitating* a preemie infant...this infant was alive, moving & conscious & they did NOTHING, not even try to make the little one's few hours of life more comfortable apparently. That is cruelty.

WTF are you saying? This is the reason I have NO faith in doctors and nurses. Do you sleep at night? How can people in your profession take an oath to SAVE lives when one so young matters little?
Did he not take a breath? What if it were YOUR child? Or grandchild? You just suck.

I was born three months early! and I survived, and I am healthy.. I am 26 years old with mild asthma. Which is my only health fault. ALL CHILDREN should be saved on request, that is what we have health insurance for! If the child's brain is not functioning then that is a different story.

"What you say happens to some but certainly not all preemies."

The question is not "all preemies," but ones tragically born before those dates. If they are born too soon (and that isn't judged _simply_ by weeks: doctors look at things like organ development) then, yes, we're pretty much talking about nearly all of them. The ones that live at all are very much the exceptions, not the rules, and most of those few end up with such severe damage that they never really develop or recover from it.

We do not endlessly shock flatlines. Again: there is a thing called futile care, and its generally not simply a lot of work to provide it: it's UNETHICAL to provide it, for a whole host of reasons.

"What if you develop health problems in your old age, shall we simply euthanize you?"

There is a HUGE difference between euthanasia (actually outright killing someone) and keeping someone alive artificially when it's long past what their body can endure on its own anymore. We have the technology to keep a heart beating and lungs pumping almost indefinitely long past when even the brain gives out and we are only getting better at this. That doesn't mean that we should, or that this would improve anyone's life. That's a mockery of life, not an enhancement of it.

To answer your question, yes, I would still prefer to try. As a nurse and mother of identical twin girls born three months premature, I have seen first hand, both personally and professionally, how miraculous these children can be. The babies do literally "fight for their lives" but I have seen the smallest children leave the NICU in perfect health while watching full term infants die. EVERY CHILD deserves a chance at life. As health care professionals it is our job to protect life as best we can, not play God and decide who lives and who dies.

By the way, my daughters are now twelve years old and are not only happy, "normal" preteens but they exceed their peers on every endeavor they undertake. No one knew what to expect when they were born but I am so thankful that the doctors and nurses who cared for them for 5 months in that NICU gave them every possible chance. Now I could not imagine what life would be like without them.

Are you suggesting nothing being done was ok? Even if the doctor followed his oath and the baby died, at least the mom would not have to watch her baby die without intervention,. I was born 7 weeks premature. 3 1/2 lbs. Never on a ventilator, only warming bed. Fit in a shoebox and my mom bought clothes from a doll store. I am 45y.o. now and back then, most did die.I was meant to be. We have the resources now to give good quality of life to babies.We have seen babies born even earlier grow up ok. Even if they have disabilities, who's choice is it to care for and love the child? The parents! The doctor had no right to determine the child would die anyway without trying any intervention.

None of us knows the suffering life will bring to us. To deny medical care to a child who is born alive and breathing is to play God. To deny medical care to any human because they might have to endure suffering in life is ludicrous. Then we should all be killed as soon as we are born, because we will all endure some form of suffering in this life. Yes, obviously, a preemie stands a good chance of more physical suffering than a child born at term, but who are we to decide that that child's life - even amidst the suffering - is not of value. We all understand that there is a limit to what is live saving techniques and what is experimentation. That is why it is so important to have people in our lives, like a good priest or person who is strong in their faith and teachings of the church, to advise us.

Is Hitler so far in our past that we have forgotten the evil in choosing who is to live and who is to die based on their contribution to society?

My husband is British and I have had personal experience with the NHS. 10% of your paycheck is taken by the government to fund the NHS. That's on top of regular income tax! My husband hasn't been to the doctor in two years, yet he has paid plenty to the NHS, and it's not an option whether or not to pay. So Emily, it is incorrect for you to say that if the government is paying for it, then they get to decide. They don't pay for most of it, the taxpayers do! The people should get to make the calls! This is why I'm not having children until we move back to the US.

Liza,
Are you saying that leaving the baby to drown in his own fluids wasn't torture? That seems like a pretty crappy way to die.

Rhonda said "If you let one die without doing anything to help, could that be the person who could have cured cancer when they were grown? Now you will never know......"

Of course, that could also be the person who grows up to be a serial killer or child molester.

Kristen,
I have dedicated my life to caring for infants and I feel it is an honor and a blessing to be able to use my skills so the most fragile and vulnerable can survive. Stories such as you told of your 3 year old daughter make me very happy that my profession made a difference in your life. I truly mean this. But honestly Kristen, there is a limit to what technology can do. A one and a half pound baby is huge to me, when compared to the micro-preemies I wrote about. It is because I have a respect for human life that I do not believe infant's born at any gestational age should be resuscitated. Women come in to Labor and Delivery all the time who deliver at 17, 18, 19 weeks. Should we resuscitate at that gestational age? What do you think, in your heart and soul, should be done?