SOME WILL CALL IT INFANTICIDE...

EUTHANASIA OF NEWBORNS?
(AP) (old article) NETHERLANDS

...The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital’s guidelines have come to be known, would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life of newborns deemed to be in pain from incurable disease or extreme deformities.

The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when *** the child’s medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it’s best.***

Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness.

The hospital revealed last month it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors.

This appears to me, from what is in the article, to be a rational approach to severely damaged newborns. Keep in mind - it is an option for the parents.but it is the most sensible way to handle such occurrences - to provide the OPTION. They may choose another course of action. I realize the concept of terminating newborns is an emotionallly disturbing decision - BUT it is the most rational solution - to offer parents the option...