investigates, discovers, questions A Loving Thing to Do?
A badly damaged baby is ' allowed' to die. Is it mercy or murder?
Some doctors hold that no matter how malformed a new-born baby may be, its life must be sustained at all costs. And parents will often accept damaged babies without resentment. Other doctors, and some parents too, take the view that a life severely limited by handicap can be a fate much worse than a quiet and painless death, and that love is not diminished in letting a baby fade away.
Who decides? On what criteria? Where do the parents come in? Harold Williamson visits a Special Care Baby Unit where the mothers are encouraged to share in the life-or-death decisions - decisions with which the nurses and doctors are familiar but never at ease.
Producer LOUISE PANTON Editor TIM SLESSOR