Alleged hospital practice queried

Press, 25 September 1978, Page 10

Alleged hospital practice queried

PA Dunedin, The Independent candidate■ for the Dunedin North seat, in the General Election,' Mr John O’Neill, has challenged, the Minister of Health and : hospital boards throughout New Zealand, to explain, how spina bifida children! are dealt with at birth. Mr O’Neill quoted a recent study reported in the “British Medical Journal” about practices alleged to occur in British hospitals. “In 1974, Sir William Liley claimed at a public meeting in Auckland that new-born babies whose lives could have been saved by I simple surgery had been' allowed to starve to death in! Auckland.” But the Director of the Health Department's Public' Health Division, Dr R. Camp-bell-Begg, said that killing spina bifida babies by. starvation was not happen-! ing in New Zealand. Dr Begg said he could not imagine such a thing happen-, ing in this country. If it had h appened, it would not have been documented and would have been an exception. Parents had withheld consent for surgery because the;

ij children would also have j been mentally handicapped, IMr O’Neill said. -j “Since that time there (have been disturbing reports !|of similar incidents else- : where in New Zealand but none have been documented I and the Otago Hospital ; Board has maintained a ' stony silence as to what ; happens to children who are alive after an abortion,” he , said. “Now the British Medical Journal (December, 1977) has documented the killing of spina bifida babies by starvation in some British hospitals. It is also not surprising that the United I Kingdom Government has I funded 1175,000 for a study :on the problems of Bntains ageing population in terms | which embrace euthanasia as a possible solution. “These inhuman practices could only come about in a I society which allows inj tended destruction of some lives. The precarious crust which supports civilisation i has been broken with the . permitting of intended kill i ing of the unborn. If the .right to life is subject to the . vagaries of politicians nopne is secure,” Mr O’Neill I said.