Originally Posted By: AuntyM
From the link I posted...

Quote:
Infants born at 22-23 weeks gestation have a 1-10% chance of survival, with the high end requiring the most advanced NICU care possible. Of those survivors, greater than 95% will suffer profound neurodevelopmental impairment NICHD/NIH. By profound neurodevelopmental impairment, I do not mean the child will have a learning disability, or need to walk with canes, or have mild cerebral palsy. I mean the child may suffer from intractable seizures, need a feeding tube because of being unable to swallow, have varying degrees of blindness and deafness, have spastic quadraplegia and be wheelchair bound, never speak, never crawl, never walk, never run, etc.



I honestly don't think any parent has the right to force something like this on a child and if they insist, we as a society need to stop them.


I am way too opinionated to even consider having a dialog on this, but I do know from working as a Medicaid auditor, this state and every other state, has many people in the condition described above. Many are 100% bed ridden and unresponsive in any way. Their care is paid for by our tax dollars, state and federal. More than 25 years ago these people cost us more than$300 per day. I have no idea what the expense is now but am sure that in Washington State alone the cost is in the millions per year. The decision is deeply personal but the result is often a child abandoned to intensive lifelong care at government expense. The cost is enormous, the answer to the problem imponderable.
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No huevos no pollo.