Symposium: 3. Legislation is likely to create more difficulties than it resolves.

The Secretary of the British Medical Association rejects the arguments advanced in two preceding articles in the same Journal issue, one by legal practitioners Diana and Malcolm Brahams and the other by law student Peter Ferguson, both of which favor legislation to govern decisions on the withholding of treatment from defective newborns. Havard criticizes the draft bill proposed by the Brahams and contends that the result of legislation would be to force physicians to practice defensive medicine rather than medicine in the best interests of their patients.