To Treat or Not to Treat

Medical and ethical decision concerning treatment for handicapped newborns have always been difficult. Despite technological advances, parents and health-care professionals still search for criteria that will address treatment categories from an ethical standpoint. Richard A. McCormick, a leading Roman Catholic moral theologian, has proposed a patient-centered, quality-of-life approach to treatment decision that appears to meet the needs of decision-makers. Peter A. Clark applies McCormick's ethical approach to five categories of handicapped newborns as a practical demonstration of the treatment decision process. "Clark constructs, analyzes, and criticizes McCormick's developing methodology which McCormick himself never explicitly elaborated in his own writings." -Charles E. Curran, Southern Methodist University "Modern neonatology has worked wonders in the care of the newborn. Some of its successes have however resulted in the most difficult clinical and ethical dilemmas. Physicians, families and nurses will need and appreciate Fr. Peter Clark's judicious, sensitive and practical guidance through both the philosophical and the theological issues." - Edmund D. Pellegrino, Georgetown University Medical Center