MORAL CASES
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The second case is that of an infant who can neither suck nor swallow, so that he must be fed through a stomach tube. Gavage will be permanently necessary to keep him alive. And there are indications that he may be an imbecile. Healy argues that the fact that the child is probably an imbecile is an irrelevant consideration, since every infant whether nonnal or abnormal must be given the benefit of ordinary means to preserve !ife. However, in this instance he thinks that gavage which is required over a long period of time, i.e. six months or more, would be so burdensome to the parents that it would be extraordinary means and therefore not obligatory. The third case concerns an infant born with a hydrocephalie condition. If it lives it will never be normal and will be a very grave burden to the parents. To keep it alive artificial respiration is required at once. Healy thinks that the physician must use artificial respiration to save the infant. His argument: "Artificial respiration of a temporary nature is an ordinary means of tiding a person over a crisis, and therefore it is obligatory. The fact that this young patient is horribly abnormal does not alter the solution of the case. Every infant, no matter how grossly deformed he may be, is a human being and as such has the same right to !ife as that which is enjoyed by a perfectly normal child. Whatever a physician would be obliged to do for a normal child, he must do for this hydrocephalie. A LANDMARK ARTICLE
In a recent landmark article published simultaneously in the Joumal of the American Medical Association and America Richard McCormick expressed his disagreement with the older Catholic moralists. He argues that the quality of the !ife to be lived is a relevant consideration in making a decision about saving a !ife or !etting it die. As a practical guideline he suggests that if the infant's "potential for human relationship" is "simply non existent or would be utterly submerged in the mere struggle to survive, that !ife has achieved its potential." Capacity to relate cannot be determined by a mathematical formula, and the decision to let a baby die or to save it will remain the burden of parentS in consultation with doctors. In many cases the judgment will be ambiguous and unclear. But in sorne cases it will be relatively easy. For instance, there