Demonstrably awful: the right to life and the selective non-treatment of disabled babies and young children

Read, Janet and Clements, Luke 2004. Demonstrably awful: the right to life and the selective non-treatment of disabled babies and young children. Journal of Law and Society 31 (4) , pp. 482-509. 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2004.00300.x

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Abstract

Twenty-five years ago it was common practice to bring about the deaths of some children with learning disabilities or physical impairments. This paper considers a small number of landmark cases in the early 1980s that confronted this practice. These cases illustrate a process by which external forces (social, philosophical, political, and professional) moved through the legal system to effect a profound change outside that system – primarily in the (then) largely closed domain of medical conduct/practice. These cases are considered from a socio-legal perspective. In particular, the paper analyses the reasons why they surfaced at that time, the social and political contexts that shaped the judgments, and their legacy.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Law
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General)
Publisher:	Wiley Blackwell
ISSN:	0263-323X
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2016 03:19
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/57374

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