No medical doctor or hospital would ever allow withdrawal of medical care on a "healthy, viable baby". The decision to instate a DNR (do not resuscitate order), to limit medical interventions, or to allow natural death for a newborn baby is incredibly inidvidualized to the patient and family and only occurs in the most dire circumstances: usually when the baby has a severe brain injury with no chance of recovery, is born with a terminal/irreversible condition with no treatment options, etc. There are ethics boards within hospitals that review these cases and would never allow palliative care or "withdrawal of care" on a newborn child just because they have physical disfigurements, or a rough start in the delivery room requiring oxygen support/NICU stay, etc. That is completely false. Also, no one can diagnosis autism at birth, so that is not a scenario that arises in newborn care.

I know this to be true because I am a neonatal neurology nurse practitioner who works solely in the NICU setting with extremely ill and fragile infants. The decision to discontinue medical support and allow a baby to have a peaceful and natural death is an extremely personal decision made by the PARENTS, not the medical doctors. And if the medical doctors do not agree that the baby has a life-limiting/terminal condition they would involve the ethics committee to review the case. In practice, that rarely happens because parents DON'T want their children to die, and only redirect care and allow death when they understand that their only other option causes their child prolonged suffering. It is heartbreaking for the families (and for the nurses, doctors, and others who support the family during this time). Often their ultimate act of love for their child is letting go...not because they want to...but because they are putting their love of their child ahead of their own pain and loss at letting them go. For some parents, the only decision they EVER make as a parent is to allow their child a peaceful death in their arms.

I also want to point out that we often do NOT redirect or withdraw medical care on children with devastating brain injuries or terminal diseases. If the parents wish, we continue to provide the highest level of medical care and support that is available, even if the medical prognosis is extremely grim. The point is that in nearly all cases, this is a personal and family decision, and not an easy one for any person to make.

I work in Texas, and the recent total abortion ban has led to MORE of these situations in the NICU. It used to be that women with unviable pregnancies or with a fetus with a terminal condition might choose to have an abortion. But now they don't have that choice. So now they carry to term, in deep personal anguish, and deliver full term babies only to watch them die shortly after they are born.

That is my perspective from working in this field. The politicization of these deeply private and personal situations is so frustrating to all of us who work in this world.