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Full-Text Articles in Law
Disabled Newborns And The Federal Child Abuse Amendments: Tenuous Protection, Steven R. Smith
Disabled Newborns And The Federal Child Abuse Amendments: Tenuous Protection, Steven R. Smith
Steven R. Smith
This Article first explores the scope of the problem of withholding lifesaving treatment from seriously impaired infants. Next, the Article examines the interests involved in decisions to withhold treatment and the rationales for them. It contends that there are limitations on parental child-rearing rights and suggests standards to define when treatment may be withheld. The Article then reviews recent efforts to protect disabled newborns and points out a shift in the focus of these efforts toward a reliance on child abuse and neglect laws. Next, the Article surveys the development of federal and state child abuse and neglect statutes. The …
Life And Death Decisions In The Nursery: Standards And Criteria For Withholding Lifesaving Treatment From Infants, Steven R. Smith
Life And Death Decisions In The Nursery: Standards And Criteria For Withholding Lifesaving Treatment From Infants, Steven R. Smith
Steven R. Smith
That the conduct of human affairs does not always conform to the requirements of the law is a surprise to no one. But in few areas of critical life and death decisions is there such a disparity between commonly recognized principles of law and developing medical practice as exists in the area of withholding lifesaving medical care from infants, notably defective infants. The law is said to restrict physicians and parents from withholding lifesaving treatment from infants for the purpose of causing their deaths. Yet it is reported that it is not uncommon for lifesaving treatment to be denied severely …