ABSTRACT
As the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has put it ‘The management of babies with serious incurable medical conditions is our most difficult area of paediatric practice’ (RCPCH (1997) and see McHaffie (1999)). We have seen in Chapter 4 how the English courts have dealt, and continue to deal, with controversial and often heart-rending cases which involve the difficult question for parents and physicians about whether to decline or withdraw treatment for handicapped newborns.
