TY  - JOUR
T1  - DEcisions regarding treatment of seriously ill newborns
AU  - Fost N
Y1  - 1999/06/02
N1  - 10.1001/jama.281.21.2041
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 2041
EP  - 2043
VL  - 281
IS  - 21
N2  - 
There has been a
remarkable transformation during the past 15 years in the process and
substance of decisions regarding medical treatment of seriously ill and
handicapped newborns. For thousands of years, parents exercised virtual
ownership over their infants.1 Infanticide was common in
Western Europe until late in the 19th Century.2- 3 In the
United States during the 1970s, standard medical treatment for curable
disorders was commonly withheld from infants with Down syndrome, a
practice that was supported by two thirds of
pediatricians.4- 5 In 1983, a major medical center reported
that standard treatment was withheld from more than half of a cohort of
infants referred with spina bifida.6 These decisions were
often driven by directive counseling by the infants' physician, with
or without the consent of the parents. Courts were generally supportive
of the rights of biologic parents to make such decisions, even when it
was implausible that withholding treatment was in the child's
interests.7

SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.281.21.2041
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.281.21.2041
ER  -