Is it wrong to save them? Doctors are developing miraculous ways to save even the tiniest of newborns. Many worry that the outcomes might not all be positive.
Debate over care for tiniest babies
Is it wrong to save them? Doctors are developing miraculous ways to save even the tiniest of newborns. Many worry that the outcomes might not all be positive.
At 22 weeks a baby is around the size of a sweet potato. Its lungs and kidneys are still developing. Its immune system is very fragile.
For most of history, babies born at 22 weeks - known as extremely premature - had no chance of survival outside their mother's body.
Now, everything has changed. A baby born at 22 weeks has a chance of life, with some doctors saying as many as one third could survive.
However, many of the extremely premature babies saved today will develop long-term health problems, with as many as a quarter suffering from a serious disability.
Their immune systems are underdeveloped and they succumbFail to resist a negative force, or die from an illness or injury. easily to infections.
Extremely premature babies may be in unspeakable pain, and to save them, doctors might be adding to this pain.
We have to ask ourselves how much it is worth to save a human life.
Extremely premature babies need around-the-clock care. The pressures are immense and survival is against the odds.
But some say that we have a moral obligation to do all we can to save lives. As writer George Bernard Shaw said: "Life itself is the miracle of miracles."
Is it wrong to save them?
Yes! Just think of how much pain these tiny, helpless newborns endureTo suffer something difficult, unpleasant, or painful. Also can mean to continue to exist for a long time., sometimes for months on end.
No! That the vast majority of parents choose to actively treat their extremely premature babies shows that it is the right thing to do.
Succumb - Fail to resist a negative force, or die from an illness or injury.
Endure - To suffer something difficult, unpleasant, or painful. Also can mean to continue to exist for a long time.
Debate over care for tiniest babies

Glossary
Succumb - Fail to resist a negative force, or die from an illness or injury.
Endure - To suffer something difficult, unpleasant, or painful. Also can mean to continue to exist for a long time.