Which Babies Shall Live?: Humanistic Dimensions of the Care of Imperiled Newborns

by Thomas H. Murray, Arthur L. Caplan

The fate of seriously ill newborns has captured the atten­ tion of the public, of national and state legislators, and of powerful interest groups. For the most part, the debate has been cast in the narrowest possible "discrimination against the handicapped"; "physician authority"; "family autonomy." We believe that something much more profound is the debate over the care of sick and dying babies appears to be both a manifestation of great changes in our feelings about infants, children, and families, and a reflection of deep and abiding attitudes toward the newborn, the handi­ capped, and perhaps other humans who are "less than" nor­ mal, rational adults. How could we cast some light on those feelings and attitudes that seemed to determine silently the course of the public debate? We chose to enlist the humanities-the dis­ players and critics of our cultural forms. Rather than closing down the public discussion, we wanted to open it up, to illuminate it with the light of history, religion, philosophy, literature, jurisprudence, and humanistically oriented sociol­ ogy. This book is a first effort to place the hotly contested Baby Doe debate into a broader cultural context.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Thomas H. Murray; Faculty Affiliate
President and CEO, The Hastings Center
Thomas H. Murray, President and CEO, The Hastings Center, was formerly the Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, where he was also the Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics.

Murray serves on many editorial boards and has been president of the Society for Health and Human Values and of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Among other current posts, he serves as Chair of the Ethical Issues Review Panel for the World Anti-Doping Agency, as International Expert Advisor to Singapore’s Bioethics Advisory Committee, and is Vice Chair of Charity Navigator.

Murray has testified before many Congressional committees and is the author of more than 250 publications. He is also editor, with Maxwell J. Mehlman, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology.

Murray is currently PI of The Hastings Center’s project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, on ethics and synthetic biology. He is writing a book on values, drugs and sport with the working title Why We Play.

In 2004, Murray received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from Uppsala University.