Citation

Murray TH. Soc. Sci. Med. 1985; 20(11): 1103-1107.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1985, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3161187

Abstract

Murray's commentary on Robert F. Weir's Selective Nontreatment of Handicapped Newborns, one of four Social Science and Medicine essays on this work, concentrates on three issues. He asks what standards, including personhood criteria, should be used in making treatment decisions about impaired infants; what reliance should be placed on the distinction between ordinary/obligatory and extraordinary/optional therapy; and whether active killing of an infant is ever permissible. Although finding himself in general agreement with Weir, Murray disagrees with the latter's acceptance of very limited active euthanasia, and believes that more attention could have been paid to the social contexts of moral beliefs and to the political aspects of the debate over newborn care.

Language: en