'A wonderful case and an irrational tragedy': The Phillip Becker case continues.

Why are the courts having so much trouble deciding what should be done with Phillip Becker? Two years ago this column discussed the first series of cases involving Phillip. At that time the California courts decided that his parents had the right to refuse recommended heart surgery for this twelve-year-old Down syndrome child, even though this would result in a slow and painful death for Phillip t "Denying the Rights of the Retarded: The Phillip Becker Case," Hastings Center Report, December 1979, pp. 1820). That decision was arbitrary, unprincipled emotional and paced parental autonomy ahead of the right to life of a mentally retarded child.