Dr. Anthony Shaw, who allows disappointed parents of handicapped newborn children the right to have them deprived of medical care and thus eliminated, reports:
“As a surgeon whose natural inclination is to use the scalpel to fight off death, standing by and watching a salvageable baby die is the most emotionally exhausting experience I know. It is easy at a conference, in theoretical discussion, to decide that such infants should be allowed to die. It is altogether different to stand by in the nursery and watch as dehydration and infection whither a tiny being over hours and days. This is a terrible ordeal for me and the hospital staff – much more so than for the parents who never set foot in the nursery.… It seems to me that a society which does not provide for its defectives is less than humane.”
Anthony Shaw, “Doctor, Do We Have a Choice?” New York Times Magazine January 30, 1972 P 54
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