Abstract
Passive euthanasia of defective newborns through selective non-treatment is now widely practiced in England and the United States. Many persons defend the practice as a morally and socially justified way to prevent suffering. However, a practice of withholding necessary medical care from defective infants to cause their death does not square easily with basic norms of liberal democratic society that accord equal respect to the life of all persons whatever their physical, mental or social characteristics.
Comments on Spicker and Raye’s ‘The Bearing of Prognosis on the Ethics of Medicine’, in this volume, pp. 189–216.
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© 1981 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Robertson, J.A. (1981). Substantive Criteria and Procedures in Withholding Care from Defective Newborns. In: Spicker, S.F., Healey, J.M., Engelhardt, H.T. (eds) The Law-Medicine Relation: A Philosophical Exploration. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8407-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8407-3_13
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