Letters
The right to live
Sir: Donald Gould shows a curious inconsistency in his article 'The right to die' (15 August). He appears to recognise that the individual's legal right to life becomes established at the time of foetal viability, While at the same time defending doctors Who ensure the early demise of handicapped newborn babies. He paints a very pessimistic picture of life with disability, and resorts to emotive phraseology such as 'grossly defective' and 'sadly suffering' to describe these babies.
Through having a mentally handicapped son (who is, incidentally, a happy and Contented child) I have met many people with spina bifida and mongolism or, to give it its correct name, Down's Sydrome. These People are human beings with dignity, capable of enjoying life and giving pleasure to their friends. Mongolism does not invariably entail severe retardation; a mongol girl who attends normal school was interviewed on Woman's Hour not long ago. Another, Paula McDonagh, was the 16-year-old star of a BBC play for today, The Spongers. Spina bifida does not inevitably lead to a fatal infection of the nervous system. Professor Robert Zachary, a paediatrician With over 30 years' experience, points out in the British Medical Journal of 3 December 1977 that 'there is a widespread myth that if You operate. . . the child will live, and if You do not operate he will die. This is nonsense. They will not all die spontaneously.' Babies cannot have a 'right' to die, since their wishes are not consulted in the matter.
When it is decided that a baby should die, the common method chosen is starvation under sedation. The babies are sedated so that they cannot cry for food. This is just as direct a method of killing as a lethal injection. It is in fact, even less 'merciful' since the child becomes dehydrated and eyewitnesses have reported inability to Close desiccated eyelids and the skin splitting into open wounds (an account by a mother who managed to save her baby, reported in the Daily Mail, 2 February 1981).
The law of the land quite rightly does not differentiate between the condition of the victims of illegal killings. If it did, we would h_ave regressed to the ethic that held sway in Nazi Germany. In international year of the disabled, we must reaffirm the right to life Of everybody.
Debby Sanders Secretary, 'Women For Life',
18 Ash Grove, Penge,
London SE20
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