Compelled Compassion : Government Intervention in the Treatment of Critically Ill Newborns

"In April 1982, an infant boy was born in Bloomington, Indiana, with Down syndrome and a defective, but surgically correctable, esophagus. His parents refused to consent to surgery or intravenous feeding. The hospital unsuccessfully sought a court order to force treatment, and appeals to higher courts also failed. The child, identified as Baby Doe by the news media, subsequently died. The events in Bloomington became the catalyst for action by the Reagan administration, the courts, and Congress that culminated in a federal policy that makes failure to treat newborns with disabilities a form of child neglect. This book centers on the public policy aspects of withholding treatment from critically ill newborns who are disabled. Specifically, it deals with why the policy was enacted and what impact it has had on health care workers, families, and infants. Some of the contributors to this book spearheaded the early debate on withholding treatment. Anthony Shaw's New York Times Magazine article in 1972 was the first to address these issues in the popular press. The following year, he published a related article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Also appearing in this same issue of NEJM, was the pathbreaking study, coauthored by A. G. M. Campbell, on withholding treatment in the special care nursery at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Each of these articles promoted much public and professional discussion."--Publisher's website Front Matter....Pages i-xi Life-and-Death Decisions in the Midst of Uncertainty....Pages 1-33 Conflict, Compromise, and Symbolism....Pages 35-72 A Legal Analysis of the Child Abuse Amendments of 1984....Pages 73-103 Hard Cases Make Bad Law....Pages 105-122 Parental Perspectives on Treatment-Nontreatment Decisions Involving Newborns with Spina Bifida....Pages 123-153 Rationing Medicine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)....Pages 155-183 Baby Doe and Me....Pages 185-205 Baby Doe and Forgoing Life-Sustaining Treatment....Pages 207-236 Neonatologists, Pediatricians, and the Supreme Court Criticize the “Baby Doe” Regulations....Pages 237-266 The Impact of the Child Abuse Amendments on Nursing Staff and Their Care of Handicapped Newborns....Pages 267-284 Infant Care Review Committees in the Aftermath of Baby Doe....Pages 285-297 Decision Making in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit....Pages 299-316 Back Matter....Pages 317-336