The Government and Selective Nontreatment of Handicapped Infants

Abstract

Weir traces the history of the federal government's involvement in decisions to withhold treatment from severely handicapped newborns that was triggered by two recent, widely-publicized cases in Illinois and Indiana. The Department of Health and Human Services' "Notice to Health Care Providers" and another DHHS directive designed to remind hospitals of their legal obligations to the handicapped have generated strong criticism from medical groups, and their legal implications are uncertain. Rather than government regulation, Weir proposes a serial ordering of decision makers, with an interdisciplinary neonatal intensive care unit committee being the focal point, as the best way to protect the interests of handicapped newborns. (KIE abstract)