I
ItrustJesus
Guest
Hi. I’d like people to comment on this story from a Catholic moral theology perspective:
The father of a severely disabled baby at the centre of a landmark High Court right-to-life case says it is up to God to “give life and take it away”.
Baby MB, who cannot be named, has spinal muscular atrophy - a genetic condition which leads to almost total paralysis - and cannot breathe unaided.
His family are fighting a hospital’s bid for permission to withdraw ventilation from the 17-month-old.
Doctors say it would be better to let him die as his life is “intolerable”.
But the child’s father told the court he did not think it was right for anyone to decide if the baby should live or die.
Matters of life and death were up to God, he said, and nobody should interfere with that.
Earlier the child’s mother said she believed Baby MB, who has been in hospital since he was seven weeks old, has a “quality of life worth living”.
“Just because he is in a hospital doesn’t mean he has a poor quality of life, because his family is there,” she said.
She said he had favourite television programmes, and showed his like or dislike for them by either focusing on them or going to sleep.
She added: “He likes Barney, Toy Story 1 and 2, Nemo, Shark Tale, Shrek 1 and 2.”
Asked by her QC, Charles Foster, what he did not like, she said: “Soaps such as Eastenders. I do put them on and he’ll look away or go to sleep. He doesn’t like the news.”
‘Expressive’
She claimed he also liked certain nursery rhymes which his brother and sister sing to him.
And she said that when her son felt pain he would cry, although it was not possible to hear him because of the ventilation tube.
“His eyes go red a little bit and tears will come down,” she said.
She argued if he was given an operation which might allow him to breathe alone - a tracheotomy - his life would improve.
“I believe his quality of life, which he has now, will get better if he is able to go out with it, walking around the hospital grounds, to be outside which mostly he has never seen before.”
Genetic condition
Baby MB cannot chew or swallow and is fed through a tube.
And while he is not believed to be mentally impaired, he can only move his eyebrows.
His mother told the court that despite his very paralysed face, he expressed himself by moving his eyebrows and attempting to smile.
His condition, which affects one in 6,400 newborns, is incurable and is set to lead to almost full paralysis.
It is a recessive genetic condition passed to a baby when both its parents carry a certain gene.
‘Intolerable life’
Medics from the hospital caring for him have told the court they believe the invasive ventilation method they use to keep him alive caused him discomfort.
One unnamed doctor said he believed Baby MB had an “intolerable life”, and that he was troubled by the life-sustaining treatment he had been obliged to give to the child for some time.
Another expert neurologist Marie Louise Hughes told the court the child would never be able to communicate anything to anyone.
She said there was also no objective evidence the child had normal cognitive function.
Last week the judge, Mr Justice Holman who is hearing the case, said it could be a landmark one, as it was the first time a court had been asked to make a life or death ruling on a child who has near or full cognitive function.
He is expected to make a reserved judgement several days after the case closes.
(Source : BBC News)
The father of a severely disabled baby at the centre of a landmark High Court right-to-life case says it is up to God to “give life and take it away”.
Baby MB, who cannot be named, has spinal muscular atrophy - a genetic condition which leads to almost total paralysis - and cannot breathe unaided.
His family are fighting a hospital’s bid for permission to withdraw ventilation from the 17-month-old.
Doctors say it would be better to let him die as his life is “intolerable”.
But the child’s father told the court he did not think it was right for anyone to decide if the baby should live or die.
Matters of life and death were up to God, he said, and nobody should interfere with that.
Earlier the child’s mother said she believed Baby MB, who has been in hospital since he was seven weeks old, has a “quality of life worth living”.
“Just because he is in a hospital doesn’t mean he has a poor quality of life, because his family is there,” she said.
She said he had favourite television programmes, and showed his like or dislike for them by either focusing on them or going to sleep.
She added: “He likes Barney, Toy Story 1 and 2, Nemo, Shark Tale, Shrek 1 and 2.”
Asked by her QC, Charles Foster, what he did not like, she said: “Soaps such as Eastenders. I do put them on and he’ll look away or go to sleep. He doesn’t like the news.”
‘Expressive’
She claimed he also liked certain nursery rhymes which his brother and sister sing to him.
And she said that when her son felt pain he would cry, although it was not possible to hear him because of the ventilation tube.
“His eyes go red a little bit and tears will come down,” she said.
She argued if he was given an operation which might allow him to breathe alone - a tracheotomy - his life would improve.
“I believe his quality of life, which he has now, will get better if he is able to go out with it, walking around the hospital grounds, to be outside which mostly he has never seen before.”
Genetic condition
Baby MB cannot chew or swallow and is fed through a tube.
And while he is not believed to be mentally impaired, he can only move his eyebrows.
His mother told the court that despite his very paralysed face, he expressed himself by moving his eyebrows and attempting to smile.
His condition, which affects one in 6,400 newborns, is incurable and is set to lead to almost full paralysis.
It is a recessive genetic condition passed to a baby when both its parents carry a certain gene.
‘Intolerable life’
Medics from the hospital caring for him have told the court they believe the invasive ventilation method they use to keep him alive caused him discomfort.
One unnamed doctor said he believed Baby MB had an “intolerable life”, and that he was troubled by the life-sustaining treatment he had been obliged to give to the child for some time.
Another expert neurologist Marie Louise Hughes told the court the child would never be able to communicate anything to anyone.
She said there was also no objective evidence the child had normal cognitive function.
Last week the judge, Mr Justice Holman who is hearing the case, said it could be a landmark one, as it was the first time a court had been asked to make a life or death ruling on a child who has near or full cognitive function.
He is expected to make a reserved judgement several days after the case closes.
(Source : BBC News)
