Deck 9: End-Of-Life Measures for Severely Compromised Newborns

Question 1

In the US, who is the primary medical decisionmaker for a severely compromised neonate when the parents and medical team disagree?

A) The medical team
B) The parents
C) The courts
D) A guardian ad litem

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following best characterizes a congenital disorder?

A) A genetic disorder
B) A disorder present at birth
C) An inherited disorder
D) All of the above

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Given the killing/letting-die distinction, which of the following end-of-life measures amount to killing and which to letting die?

A) Withdrawing life-sustaining treatment
B) Withholding life-sustaining treatment
C) Withholding artificial nutrition and hydration
D) All of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

According to the Baby Doe rules, in which of the following situations is forgoing life-sustaining treatment justified?

A) The treatment is medically futile
B) The treatment cannot afford the newborn a good quality of life
C) The newborn is severely compromised
D) All of the above

Question 5

Which of the following has been given as a reason for the legalization of neonatal euthanasia in the Netherlands?

A) That advances in medicine have made it possible to sustain the life of severely compromised neonates at the price of a heavy burden to society
B) That it would introduce accountability and transparency to a practice that already existed unregulated
C) That it is unfair to saddle the parents with the burden of caring for children with special needs
D) All of the above

Question 6

Which end-of-life measure was the Groningen Protocol devised to make lawful when an infant with severe congenital disorders is born?

A) Admission to neonatal intensive care
B) Forgoing life-sustaining treatment
C) Neonatal euthanasia
D) All of the above

Question 7

When an extremely premature infant with a high probability of severe disability and death is born, what protocols of care do health care professionals follow around the world?

A) Provide immediate resuscitation if the baby is born alive and admission to neonatal intensive care
B) Withhold critical care but try to keep the infant comfortable
C) Induce death as quickly and painlessly as possible
D) Both A and B

Question 8

Which of the following end-of-life measures for infants with severe congenital disorders amount to forgoing treatment?

A) Withholding life supports
B) Withdrawing life supports
C) DNR orders
D) All of the above

Question 9

What was the rationale for the Baby Doe rules?

A) To protect the interests of disabled newborns from medical neglect
B) To protect the interests of disabled newborns from discrimination on the basis of their disabilities
C) Both A and B
D Neither A nor B

Question 10

When the parents of a preemie and the medical team cannot agree on what ought to be done, what does court ruling in HCA v Miller suggest? That providers should decide according to

A) An absolute standard of parental choice
B) An absolute infant's-best-interests criterion
C) A combination of A and B
D) None of the above

Question 11

What can be said for and against a possible moral difference between withholding and withdrawing life supports from a compromised newborn? And what about between forgoing life supports and neonatal euthanasia?

Question 12

How might an appeal to quality of life support abortion for fetal defects? Provide an example of one type of birth defect that could support that appeal and one that could not.

Question 13

Think of an infant you know about or have heard about whose life was of such poor quality that you'd say it wasn't worth having at all. Would you go as far as saying that life itself was an injury to the infant? Or do you rather think that of no human life could that be truly said? Explain your answer.

Question 14

What does it mean to say that an infant is 'severely compromised'? Why might infants born too soon or too small be in that category?

Question 15

What reasons do the advocates of neonatal euthanasia (e.g., Verhagen 2013) offer for the legalization of the practice? Are you persuaded that there should be such a legal change?