It takes tremendous maturity and insight to make this choice. Providers need to respect the parents' wishes as it is the parents that need to live with their child afterwards. Refer to perinatal hospice. There are only a few in the country so every community hospice should consider this a viable program to provide much needed emotional support to parents before the birth of a child they know will most likely not live. They can also provide care at home if the child lives and the parents just want to go home with him or her, and bereavement services for the whole family for 18 months after the death.
Perinatal hospice is a much needed and wonderful alternative.
Hospital staff are hirelings of the parents. The parents have the last word on this issue and for hospital staff to provide anything other than what the parents have indicted is appropriate is arrogance beyond belief. As health professionals, we assume parents are advocates for their child. Rather, laws are crafted to protect against the unexpected case in which parents' wishes are not in the best interest of the child. What the Courts say A Texas jury agreed with most poll respondents that it was the parents' place to decide whether and when to withhold treatment for their very premature infant, and it was the hospital staff's place to carry out those wishes.