By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
During a recent filming of a documentary on premature babies, a prominent UK health official said she believes babies born at or before 23 weeks should be left to die.
According to the Daily Mail, Dr. Daphne Austin, who advises members of the government-run health care system on budgetary issues, was interviewed by the BBC2 for a documentary entitled, “23 Week Babies: The Price of Life” which will be aired tonight at 9pm.
Dr. Austin claimed that efforts to keep these babies alive only “prolongs their agony” and said the money spent would be better invested in other patients. Care for these babies, which are one week shy of the legal limit for abortion in the UK, should be treated the same way the NHS decides on whether or not to keep funding treatment for dying cancer patients, she said.
“If it was my child, from all the evidence and information that I know, I would not resuscitate,’ Dr. Austin said.
“We are doing more harm than good by resuscitating 23-weekers. I can’t think of very many interventions that have such poor outcomes. For me the big issue is that we’re spending an awful lot of money on treatments that have very marginal benefit. I would prefer to free up that money to spend on providing support to people who have much more lifelong chronic conditions.”
The NHS spends around £10 million (US $16 million) a year resuscitating babies born this early and keeping them alive on incubators and ventilators; however, only nine percent survive. Only one in 100 grows up without some form of disability, the most common of which include blindness, deafness and cerebral palsy.
Current NHS guidelines say doctors should not try to resuscitate babies born under 22 weeks, but those born between 22 and 25 weeks should be given intensive care.
The system also allows parents to have the final say on what attempts should be made to keep their child alive, with almost all opting for resuscitation with the hope their infant will defy the odds.
However, in an even more shocking comment, Dr. Austin says she doesn’t believe the parents are really acting in the best interests of the child.
“There’s a lot of emphasis on the parents’ views and what they want. But somewhere in there, there needs to be an advocate for the baby,” she says.
She went on to admit that if she were to announce that she will no longer resuscitate babies born at 24 weeks gestation or less, “there would be a witch hunt.”
A Church of England spokesman told the Daily News: “It is difficult for parents and doctors to watch a premature baby in distress and not think they must ‘do something,’ so there is often a temptation to try each technological intervention no matter what. So it is perfectly proper for the Church to insist on the best care for every patient in all reasonable circumstances.”
This is not the first time a prominent British figure has advocated for the killing of children. Popular UK advice columnist Virginia Ironside shocked the nation in October when she told a talk show host that aborting a disabled baby is the “act of a loving mother.”
She added: “If I were the mother of a suffering child – I mean a deeply suffering child – I would be the first to want to put a pillow over its face… If it was a child I really loved, who was in agony, I think any good mother would.”
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