Another controversial event around the end of life

In Belgian newspapers another shocking story has been published. A premature child seems to have been deprived of care immediately after his birth, on the order of his parents who wished not to bear the risk of a handicap. The child was aged 7 months and a half (less than 30 weeks old). According to sources near to the inquiry and quoted by the Belgian French-speaking newspaper La Libre Belgique the child could live, provided that he was given adequate care. The parents refused (before the birth) that their child be given whatever care, and thus the baby died about 4 hours later. A confirmed gynecologist, an assistant stagiaire in gynecology and a person responsible for births were present, but none of these persons followed traditional ethical, deontological and legal guidelines. Their intervention against the opinion of the parents was warranted by law, but they did not act.

It ought to be precised that we are not speaking here of euthanasia, but of interruption of care, which is another question. However, in the present case, this interruption was not warranted according to the King's prosecutor of Namur.

To get more information, read the two articles published in La libre Belgique of 21/02/2002 here: http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id=10&subid=90&art_id=207260

And the follow-up article published today, here:
http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id=10&subid=90&art_id=207504