Extreme indifference

Premature birth case shows the danger of 'guidelines' for doctors | Matt Anderson

Capewell Family

The Daily Mail from the UK reports that a woman in Great Britain held her baby for two hours until he died while doctors stood by, refusing to help. Why? Because he was born two days too soon. Guidelines in Britain hold that any baby born prior to 22 weeks not be resuscitated because such resuscitation would be futile and the baby would die anyway. Little Jayden was born at 21 weeks and 5 days.

Even if the mother pleads for help? Which she did? Sorry—no can do—was the message to her.

Such is the effect of clinical care guidelines on medical practice, guidelines in Britain developed by a think-tank called the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, guidelines that extinguish human compassion from the care equation and provide cover for doctors to deny care and for the National Health Service (NHS) to save money. Jayden was born and died on Oct. 8, 2008. His mother, Sarah Capewell, now leads a campaign to change NHS policy on treating premature babies.