Letting die severely handicapped children.

SIR I am a member of Prospect. We came into being to support Dr Leonard Arthur. We are all parents who have, or have had severely handicapped children and think our children ought to have been allowed to sleep on in peace instead of being kept alive by all the medical techniques. We have sent a Limitation ofTreatment Bill to all MPs. Most support it but no one yet has offered to undertake it as a private member's bill. The guidelines apply to infants under twenty-eight days. Parents must consent in writing. Two doctors must certify that the child is suffering from a severe physical or mental disability which is irreversible, which no treatment would alleviate, or which is of such gravity that the patient would enjoy no worthwhile quality of life. One of the doctors must be a paediatrician and both must be doctors of at least seven years' standing. Prospect is also campaigning for increased availability of screening including ultrasound scanning for all pregnant women who want it. Only forty-five health areas in England and Wales are screening regularly. Many doctors are at fault here. We receive many calls from distressed women whose unenlightened doctors have refused them scans. They then have to go privately and pay upwards of £40. We believe it should be a woman's right to be screened appropriately and have a termination if she is carrying a handicapped baby and so wishes. No woman should have to go through the horror and mental anguish of giving birth to a severely handicapped child, yet hundreds are doing just that every year. It is up to doctors to see that every pregnant mother who wants to be screened is screened then the fear of legal action by 'moles' in the hospitals need not arise.