Good News on Baby MB

The Court ruled in favor of the parents in the Baby MB case. Good. This is one of those “benefit of the doubt” cases, in which the benefit should go to life and respecting the desires of the child’s parents. Doctors and bioethicists, however well intentioned, should not be able to substitute their values for those of patient or, as in this case, family. This is not to say that a parent’s desire to receive (or reject)treatment on behalf of their child should never be overruled. But it seems to me that unless the parental choice rises to the level of abuse (such as refusing normal life saving surgery or insisting, say, demanding repeated amputations for a baby dying of gangrene), the values of doctors or bioethicists should not rule.