Petition against infanticide

Why we need a petition to the RCOG (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) against infanticide*

The RCOG has said that consideration should be given to changing the law so that very premature newborn babies can be killed after they are born. Unless we speak out strongly against this suggestion, it could be promoted, especially for disabled babies, and eventually permitted by law. The Sunday Times reported the RCOG's call with the headline: Doctors: let us kill disabled babies.

The RCOG's comments were made in a submission to an enquiry by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. The Nuffield Council enquiry did not recommend that doctors should be permitted to intervene to kill premature babies, whether they are disabled or not, but did conclude that doctors should withhold all treatment and care from the most premature babies so that they die by neglect. (This does not have legal force, but the Nuffield Council may seek to influence future changes in law and public policy.)

The RCOG said that it was not actually calling for babies to be killed, but thought there should be a public debate about it. We believe that this smacks of double-talk and sophistry: killing babies is not a topic for society to discuss, but a suggestion to be wholly rejected - discussion would only be designed to make the idea seem acceptable.

The number of premature babies born in the UK is only a small proportion of all births, but is relatively high compared to other countries, and is increasing. Most premature babies who survive suffer no long-term damage from being premature, but overall, premature babies are more likely to have a disability than full-term babies.

We believe the reaction to this should be:

a) to research the reasons why some women go into labour prematurely, and to prevent this happening -

but when babies are born prematurely:

b) to continue improving the treatment of premature babies to reduce the number of long-term problems they suffer

c) for those babies who cannot survive in the long term, to care for them as well as we possibly can - enabling them and their families to make the most of their short lives

d) to offer the best available medical treatment that will benefit the individual child, and not to make a general rule that certain premature or disabled babies should die.

We are not calling for futile treatments to be given to babies. It is both legal and ethical to withdraw treatment that is only causing suffering and providing no benefit. Doctors looking after newborn babies sometimes have to make very difficult decisions but provided they are made on the right basis - ("is the treatment helping the baby?", not "is this baby worth treating?") - then such decisions are valid. This is different from deciding that the baby should die, and then taking steps to bring about death.

The RCOG, in calling for consideration of allowing doctors to practice infanticide - by active steps to kill premature babies, and discussing the "advantages" of such an approach - is undermining the right to life of newborn babies, and especially those with disabilities.

It is significant that the Nuffield Council has moved in this direction in recommending that doctors be allowed to kill babies by neglect. Since SPUC launched this petition, the RCOG has removed its submission to the Nuffield Council from its website, but it is available by email from SPUC (email paultully@spuc.org.uk).

The petition

If you need copies of the petition to be posted to you, please email SPUC's despatch department. Please ask sympathetic people to sign it. Then return the completed petitions to the postal address on the forms.

Correspondence

Correspondence between the RCOG and SPUC on this matter is here.

11 June 2007

* "Infanticide: n. Murder of infant soon after birth, esp. with mother's consent" Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, sixth edition.