• In May of 1981, Siamese twins were born to a physician and his wife in Danville, Illinois." The infants, joined below the waist, were denied medical treatment and nourishment by Order of the parents. The State of Illinois inter-Ceded and was awarded custody of the children. The parents and their pediatrician were indicted for attempted murder. They were not convicted (Taub, 1982). In April of 1982, a Down's syndrome infant was born in Bloomington, Indiana. This child, who became known as Baby Doe, had the additional complication of an incompletely developed esophagus. Food could not pass through to his stomach. Surgery could have been performed to correct this condition, but his parents refused to allow the operation. Several courts upheld the parents' decision. Baby Doe died before a final judicial appeal could be completed (Punch & Simler, 1982). In October. 1983, a Long Island couple refused to give consent for surgery to be performed on their infant daughter. Identified as Baby Jane Doe, the child was born with spina blfida, hydrocephalus, and other complications. A Long Island judge ruled that the lifeprolonging surgery should be performed against the parents' wishes. An appeals court, however, backed the decision of the parents and overturned the lower court's order (Baby's Fate, 1983).

These cases. two of which were extensively covered by the news media. are only a sample of the increasing number of incidents that involve questions of withholding treatment and nourishment from handicapped newborns. In 1973. Duff and Campbell reported that 14% of the infants who died in the Yale-New Haven Medical Center from January, 1970, to January, 1972, died as a result of intentional withholding of treatment. A recent study in England (Alberman, 1982) indicated that over 20% of infant deaths in one British hospital were the result of decisions to withdraw or withhold treatment. Even these figures