British doctors urge consideration of euthanasia of newborns

by Tom Strode                                                                                           Vol. XIX, No. 1, January 2007

A British medical organization has called for the consideration of “active euthanasia” for severely disabled infants. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists urged the Nuffield Council on Bioethics to include newborn euthanasia in its consultation on care for “extremely premature and seriously ill babies.”

In its request, the college called on the council “to think more radically about non-resuscitation, withdrawal of treatment decisions, the best-interests test and active euthanasia.” The college said it has not formally endorsed euthanasia for newborns but wants it to be weighed by British society.

The Netherlands is the only country to have legalized euthanasia for infants. Euthanasia was not part of the Nuffield Council’s deliberations originally, because it is illegal in Great Britain, The Times of London reported. The council, however, agreed to include it in its consultation at the request of the Royal College.

The college said in its submissions to the council, according to The Times, “a very disabled child can mean a disabled family. 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.”

Some ethicists and geneticists supported the college’s request. “We can terminate for serious fetal abnormality up to term but cannot kill a newborn,” said John Harris, who is on the Human Genetics Commission and teaches bioethics at Manchester University, according to The Times. “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?”

Others, however, decried the suggestion. “Intentional killing is not part of medical care,” said John Wyatt, consultant neonatologist at University College London Hospital, The Times reported. “The majority of doctors and health professionals believe that once you introduce the possibility of intentional killing into medical practice you change the fundamental nature of medicine. It immediately becomes a subjective decision as to whose life is worthwhile.”

Permitting doctors to determine whose life is worth living “changes medicine into a form of social engineering where the aim is to maximize the benefit for society and minimize those who are perceived as worthless,” Wyatt said. [BP]