British ObamaCare update: Top NHS consulting doc says babies born at 23 weeks should be left to die

"I'll be honest, there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well." Barack Obama, June 15, 2009.

Of late in my British ObamaCare series, I've been focusing on the indignities and cruelties foisted onto the elderly men and women who fall victim to the National Health Service. The other end of the demographic curve fares no better. The Christian Institute of England reports that a top NHS consultant believes that resuscitation shouldn't be an option for babies born even as late as 23 weeks.

Dr. Daphne Austin, Consultant in Public Health Medicine for West Midlands Specialised Commissioning team, believes it is too expensive to do so.

But Dr. Mike Griffith, whose eleven-year-old daughter was born at 23 weeks, has likened Dr. Austin's idea to euthanasia.

NHS guidelines state that doctors should routinely give intensive care to babies born between 22 and 25 weeks.

But Dr. Austin believes that the low rate of survival and the high cost to the NHS should lead doctors to allow babies born at 23 weeks to die.

What if it was Austin's baby? "If it was my child, from all the evidence and information that I know," she said, "I would not resuscitate."

"High cost to the NHS..."

Tragic.

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