SD on 5/11/2006 at 00:19
As proposed by the very eminent and respected (
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2437921,00.html) Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology:
Quote:
ONE of Britain’s royal medical colleges is calling on the health profession to consider permitting the euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology is arguing that "active euthanasia" should be considered for the overall good of families, to spare parents the emotional burden and financial hardship of bringing up the sickest babies.
"A very disabled child can mean a disabled family," it says. "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."
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of killing living, breathing humans. But on the other hand, is it right to allow severly disabled babies to linger on in agony with no prospect of any quality of life? I think this issue is going to run and run.
R Soul on 5/11/2006 at 00:30
Quote Posted by Strontium Dog
no prospect of any quality of life?
Maybe not by the definition of those of us fortunate enough to be fully functioning, but it's hard to tell how the disabled people themselves would define it.
If doctors were allowed to kill disabled babies, I think there's too great a risk that the meaning of 'disabled' would then become immorally vague.
Renegen on 5/11/2006 at 00:32
hello pro-life!
Gorgonseye on 5/11/2006 at 01:07
I'd be for it if it meant you could do it BEFORE they are born, but...Doing something like that once it is already living and breathing, seems a bit intense. Saying yes to something like that could make a mother hysterical. It is indeed a cursed living, but when it gets to a certain point of development, could one really bring theirself to killing a newborn child?
Fingernail on 5/11/2006 at 01:10
"I'm afraid your baby has got symptomless coma"
pavlovscat on 5/11/2006 at 01:11
Hell, I'm for it & I am disabled. That is one reason why I decided not to have kids, too likely to pass it on. I function OK for now, but my disability is progressive. Why would I take a chance of creating a life with built-in problems? Life is tough enough without a handicap. It's too bad that most people view reproduction as a divine right rather than a responsibility.
Fingernail on 5/11/2006 at 01:12
I wish you had a internet-forum-posting handicap.
pavlovscat on 5/11/2006 at 01:18
Walk a mile in someone's else shoes before you think you understand their point of view.
SD on 5/11/2006 at 01:18
Quote Posted by Gorgonseye
I'd be for it if it meant you could do it BEFORE they are born
Well, we do that already with abortions, but the problem is that (a) we abort a whole load of healthy babies because we think they may be disabled and (b) not all disabilities are revealed by ultrasound scans.
Quote Posted by pavlovscat
Hell, I'm for it & I am disabled.
I'm tempted to make a snarky comment, but I don't think you even come close to the level of disability we're talking about here. Babies who are blind, deaf and dumb, or babies with half a spine, or babies with no limbs and a barely functioning brain is more what we're talking about here.
Gorgonseye on 5/11/2006 at 01:20
Quote Posted by Strontium Dog
Babies who are blind, deaf and dumb, or babies with half a spine, or babies with no limbs and a barely functioning brain is more what we're talking about here.
After thinking bout this further, and looking back on the discussions I have previously had with my parents, I would say that, being born disabled in such a manner, would truly have to be is a wretched existence, and unfair to force someone to live in such a way, I am for this.
