Life and death

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 4

Life and death

“Matters of Life and Death," which begins from CHTV3 next Monday, is a series of three documentaries which examines some of the occasions on which doctors are forced to play God —■ to decree that one person shall live and another die. Christopher Brasher wrote the programmes, and spent six months producing them for the 8.8. C. ! The series, also sees how hospitals handle the business of caring for the dying—and asks whether we do enough to give dignity and peace to . those who are called bleakly '•terminal cases.” The first programme Is called "In the Beginning," and is about abnormal babies. There era ebout 50 perfect babies delivered in Britain for every one with a serious defect —• but when an abnormal baby is born, the doctors concerned must make an immediate decision whether or not to "salvage.” The defects can be of many kinds, but for this film Brasher chose just two: Rhesus babies and Spina bifida babies. The second programme "Who Shall Liver’ concentrates on the issue of kidney transplants and kidney diolysis, the grafting

of a kidney from a newlydead person into a patient, and the use of the mechanical "artificial kidney." The third programme is called "Death Unto Himself Alone." In it, Brasher suggests that, because doctor* are professionally conditioned to save life, many are tempted to neglect the personal needs of the incurable. But he shows that there are dedicated people who have made this problem their special concern.