Posted on 07/10/2011 11:42:03 AM PDT by wagglebee
A study of babies in intensive care suggests that doctors are getting better at recognizing situations where infants are sure to die or have severe brain damage -- and are often holding back on life support when that's the case.
The findings "reflect increasing awareness by the medical community of the need to limit interventions of minimal or very questionable benefit, and particularly if those interventions potentially include significant pain or suffering to the patient," said Dr. Renee Boss, a neonatologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, who wasn't part of the new research.
Over the past 30 years, Boss said, doctors have gotten better at keeping very premature babies and babies with severe birth defects alive.
But more recently, those survival rates have flattened out -- possibly because "the treatments that we have now simply have reached their maximum potential for increasing survival," Boss told Reuters Health, forcing doctors and families to address cases where survival, or survival with a positive outlook, doesn't seem likely.
About six of every 1,000 infants die in the U.S. before their first birthday -- with more than half of those deaths coming in the first 28 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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So sad. I fear the Death Culture Panel will be making these decisions and, when the Government is paying, the parents will be powerless.
ha. karma's got your name.
so now babies have a duty to die?
This story is BS. It makes it sound like the Doctors make those decisions. They don’t. The parents do. The Doctors are just being more direct and honest than they have in the past. The families still make the final call. Again, this is people blaming the system for decisions that should be making for themselves.
I’m pro-life, but I dont have a big problem with this as long as the parents can veto any decision. Often times, when the doctor has decided to save the baby over the parents objections, the parents sue the hospital to help pay for the millions of dollars caring for a severely and profoundly incapacitated child. The Catholic Church recognizes such decisions, and does not advocate for life support for the hopeless cases.
I know of several cases where the Doctor treated over the objections of the parents. These were all cases where the child suffered profound and hideous brain damage, with no chance of ever recovering.
For example, at his hospital, most very sick babies who are in "stable" condition -- meaning they aren't obviously dying while on life support, but might have extensive brain damage -- don't have that care taken away.He said that's because poor, religious parents at his hospital seem to be more okay with the idea that their child might survive, though remain very impaired.
There really is no justification for treating some babies as less than human. Irrelevant factors are routinely used as the sole reason for withholding or withdrawing humane care.
Even if we were to put ethics and morality aside, what kind of arrogant stupidity is this? Have doctors become merely technicians?
We are moving so quickly in the wrong direction.
I agree. Even if the baby is brain damage; the baby deserves the chance to live.
This is disgusting. The pride & arrogance of these doctors is on full display. Yet you will still see the pro-death trolls defending such.
I pray for these people. They think they’re so enlightened, but really they’re just fools.
Are you speaking from personal experience??
After 14 years of nursing, I can tell you endless stories of physicians being very persuasive when discussing withdrawal of care with patients families. And I can also tell you numerous stories of patients written off as unsalvageable who later walked out of the hospital.
You sound like a death troll. Please tell me I’m wrong.
It would be interesting to know the hospitals and states. There are some differences.
However, I know that in many religious hospitals there is a member of the senior staff that will be called in if the parents are really stretching out the end, where all hope is gone.
That staff member will quietly sit down with the family and gently explain that extending the process is not going to change the outcome. And that sometimes you have to let go.
I would not want that job.
But, I also know there are people who have overridden the doctors on these occasions.
Most doctors and hospitals will keep going until they are specifically directed otherwise. There are still a lot of folks in the world who think Doctors are God’s hands on earth (most of them Doctors.) If they are not told specifically to stop, in clear words...they will keep going.
I know from personal experience, that Doctors do not take the long term cost of care into consideration at all. That is the adminstrators job.
There are no more funds for government to keep expanding with. So it has a choice between letting babies die, or laying off Obama voters. Babies lose.
Expect to see this trend growing as more people have to be thrown to the wolves in order to hold off collapse for one more day.
I agree. This is outrageous.
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