Neonatologists Judge the Baby Doe Regulations

Abstract

The federal regulations now in effect governing the treatment of severely handicapped infants — the so-called Baby Doe regulations — are based on the 1984 amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act; these regulations require that, except under certain specified conditions, all newborns receive maximal life-prolonging treatment. We sent questionnaires to the 1007 members of the Perinatal Pediatrics Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics to determine their views on the Baby Doe regulations and on whether the regulations had affected their practices; 494 of the members (49 percent) responded.