DocBlawg

This fight is going on in Britain where the father of a one-year-old is literally fighting for the life of his son.  The baby, “RB”, has a genetic condition called myasthenic syndrome which causes a disconnect between the nerves and the muscles; this affects the baby’s limbs and breathing.  The baby has been in the hospital since birth and has been on a ventilator.  Unfortunately, the mother and father are separated and they are not united in the fight to keep their son alive.  The mother sides with the hospital who want to remove the life support from the baby. 

According to the father, the child’s mental capacity isn’t diminished.  The baby can see, hear, feel, recognize his parents and play with toys.  The father believes that his son has life quality despite the fact that the hospital says that he doesn’t.  If the court should rule with the hospital and the mother, it will be the first time that the court has gone against the wishes of a parent in deciding life or death. 

What an extremely difficult situation.  Who would you side with father or mother and hospital?  Are outside forces influencing the wishes of the hospital such as the socialized medicine regimen enjoyed by Britain vs. the cost of keeping this baby on a ventilator?  We would like your comments.  

Thanks to AOL for bringing us this important story: http://tinyurl.com/yzc88yk.  AOL is running a poll on the topic which might be of interest to you. 

DocbLawg Comment:  With the memory of Terry Schiavo still in some minds and the rumblings of rationed care proposed by the Government healthcare plan one cannot help but think that this story provides glimpses of what may be in the future of US healthcare.  Some patients will always too expensive to treat; will this lead us down the road of rationed care and futility in medicine?

It seems that this case reflects a financial decision more than a moral decision.  If a moral decision prevailed, the biological father should be able to keep his son alive.  However, should he be able to keep his son alive despite the opposition of the mother and the system?  While the outcome for patients afflicted with myasthenic syndrome is poor, shouldn’t this baby be allowed to die on his own terms.  After all a medical decision was made to put him on a ventilator at birth so that he would have a chance at life.  Now it seems irrational and unreasonable that they intend to remove it, especially since this baby is seemingly aware of life?  Maybe medicine shouldn’t have intervened and allowed him to be put on life support in the first place. 

Many thanks to www.bigworldcentral.wordpress.com for blogging this story.