The Ethics of Surgical Treatment in Congenital Deformity of the Nervous System

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Abstract
A doctor''s medical knowledge gives him no special right to decide how far he should go in the salvaging of children who are victims of congenital deformity. The final test of successful therapeutics is the acceptance of the patient as a member of society. The individual, or his parents, must judge whether the chance of this will be increased by the treatment proposed, in the light of an honest assessment of its results by the doctor. Application of this principle to the graver forms of spina bifida involves a special difficulty, however, in that the decision to institute treatment must be made when the parents are too emotionally disturbed to consider the implications, and the child is too young to give consent at all. In considering how to surmount this difficulty, the surgeon is left face-to-face with his conscience. The author quotes from Spinozaa passage which may help him in his decision.

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