This suggestion has several limitations. Good ethics starts with good facts, so new data that might inform the ethical judgments that parents and professionals must make generally should be welcome. However, there are several methodological and conceptual problems with applying the findings to decisions involving identifiable patients. More detail about the quality of life of the adolescents in this study was provided in an earlier study. It should not be surprising that relatively high-functioning persons valued their lives, or the lives of hypothetical characters who resemble themselves.
Most people prefer life to death, even handicapped life.
There is rarely disagreement about whether it is worthwhile to save the life of a child who will have mild to moderate handicaps. This, of course, becomes progressively unknowable at the critical point, when it is most desirable to know whether the patient will ultimately value his or her life. The difficulty in learning the views of a profoundly retarded adult is a structural obstacle to obtaining the information that would be of greatest interest. Even if this question were answerable and even if the answer came back unequivocally, a question would remain about its relevance to the infant's interests. Suppose this man expressed a clear and consistent wish to die, the sooner the better.