[Joeiss]

This question will probably get many different answers, and many different reasons for those answers. One must look down deep inside of them self to provide a logical answer to a question like this. This is what I plan to do today. As of right now, I do not know what my answer will be, but by the end of this writing, my answer will be judged upon the points that I am about to make.

The growth on the baby's back and its legs that are turning blue are things that only a loved one can look over. People in this world will not see this person as a human like you or me, but as a person who is mutated, a person who is different. I wouldn't want to my patient grow up being taunted by other people, that is if he is able to go out. We all have to admit, we live in a cruel world. If my patient ever has enough strength (both physically and emotionally) to get outside to go on a car ride or something of that nature, people will look at him in pity. Pity is something that my patient should not be getting. My patient will think that he is living a regular life, a life of an uncontrollable body. I do not want to give people the opportunity to feel proud of themselves because they felt pity for him. Score one for death.

Since there is a chance that the patient will live and progressively get better (although patient still will not be totally better), we should try to make that so. We should do whatever we can to help this person live, so we should treat the baby aggressively. After all, there is a chance that the baby will get better. I think that things should only be looked upon as positive. If there is a chance that my patient can live and maybe get better, then we will try as hard as we can to make that so. Things can get better, so we might as well try, rather than give up so quickly. We are talking about a person's life here. Score one for living.

"Not only is it unable to walk, it is unable to conceive of the idea of walking. Its senses are so impaired that it barely meets the definition of "conscious." It will go through life simply lying in place, not thinking or perceiving the world." A life is a life. We should always cherish it. Even though this baby's life will amount to nothing and the person will accomplish nothing by himself in his lifetime, this baby should still live. There is a chance that the baby can learn to talk, so we have to look forward to this. Hope is all we need here. We cannot abandon hope, because in this case, it is all we have. If we let this person die, we will never know if this person can fully recuperate from spina difiba. New tests can be performed on this patient, and who knows, maybe a breakthrough discovery can occur. Score one for living.

Since there are ways to treat this case, why not treat it? It will not even cost a lot of money for the parents of the patient, so I say that we should care for this child and hope for the best. A "conservative way" of care should not be in the picture. Why make the patient comfortable for a couple of weeks when you know that the patient will pass on before your eyes? We should not just stand by the patient's body and watch it die. We should try to do anything that we possibly can to help this patient get better, after all, this is what we do as doctors. Score one for living.

Well, the score is four to one, in favour of letting the child live and be cared for. There is no reason that we should let somebody die because of any disease. Since treating this child is inexpensive, I am sure that the parents would not mind paying the bills for as long as their child lives. We should cherish all lives and we should not make the decisions that are ultimately God's.