Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T12:40:30.573Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Terminating Treatment for Newborns: A Theological Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2021

John J. Paris
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In a recent issue of the Hastings Center Report, Paul and Marilyn Bridge discuss the difficulties and frustrations they encountered with the physicians and hospital concerning a proposal to withhold treatment from their severely defective newborn son, Christopher. Born some three months prematurely, he had signs of viral encephalitis. His long-term outlook was quite dim: he had severe mental retardation, and would possibly suffer from uncontrollable convulsions, deafness, blindness, and quadraplegia. Brain damage was extensive, and was thought to extend to the cortex. While Christopher was not terminally ill nor in any immediate danger of dying, the pediatrician suggested that there would be situations in the future which perhaps ought not be treated, such as infection or the aspiration of food. The family rejected that option, and insisted on treatment until Christopher, on his 75th day of life, suffered cardiac arrest. After three days of ventilator support, the parents agreed to discontinue the heroic means supporting their son whom they now believed to be terminally ill and approaching brain death.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , June 1982 , pp. 120 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bridge, P. Bridge, M., The Brief Life and Death of Christopher Bridge, Hastings Center Report 11(6): 17–19 (December 1981).Google ScholarPubMed
Id. at 19.Google Scholar
Duff, R.S. Campbell, A.G.M., Moral and Ethical Dilemmas in the Special Care Nursery, New England Journal of Medicine 289(17): 890–94 (October 25, 1973).Google ScholarPubMed
For a discussion of the Johns Hopkins case, see Gustafson, , Mongolism, Parental Desires, and the Right to Life, Perspectives in Biology & Medicine 16(4): 524, 529-33 (1973).Google ScholarPubMed
Maine Medical Center v. Houle, No. 74-145 (Superior Ct., Cumberland Cty, Me.) (February 14, 1974).Google Scholar
In re McNulty, No. 1960 (Probate Ct., Essex Cty., Mass.) (February 15, 1978).Google Scholar
Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz, 370 N.E.2d 417 (Mass. 1978) [hereinafter cited as Saikewicz].Google Scholar
Powell v. Columbia Presbyterian Hosp., 267 N.Y.S.2d 450 (Sup. Ct. Spec. Term 1965).Google Scholar
Id. at 452.Google Scholar
Glick, S., Humanistic Medicine in the Modern Age, New England Journal of Medicine 304(17): 1036–38 (April 23, 1981).Google ScholarPubMed
Eichner v. Dillon, 426 N.Y.S.2d 517 (App. Div. 1980), affirmed and modified sub nom. In re Storar, 438 N.Y.S.2d 266 (N.Y. 1981).Google Scholar
Saikewicz, supra note 7, at 432.Google Scholar
McCormick, R., To Save or Let Die, Journal of the American Medical Association 229(2): 172–76 (July 8, 1974).Google ScholarPubMed
Staff Draft: Deciding to Forego Life-Sustaining Therapy (prepared for June 10–11, 1982, meeting of President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical Research, in Washington, D.C.).Google Scholar
In re Quinlan, 355 A.2d 647 (N.J. 1976).Google Scholar
Quinlan, J. Quinlan, J. Battelle, P. Ann, Karen: The Quinlans Tell Their Story (Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y.) (1977) at 279–94.Google Scholar
Id. at 287.Google Scholar
Id. at 291–92.Google Scholar
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Euthanasia (May 5, 1980).Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Field, R.E. Romanus, R.J., A Decerebrate Patient: Eighteen Years of Care. Illinois Journal of Medicine (February 1977) reprinted in Connecticut Medicine 45(11): 717–20 (November 1981).Google Scholar
Sherman, S.R., Commentary on a Decerebrate Patient. Connecticut Medicine 45(11): 721 (November 1981).Google Scholar