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To the Editor: Dr Saigal and colleagues¹ found that parents of teenagers who had been extremely low-birth-weight (ELBW) infants gave higher quality-of-life scores to hypothetical scenarios of disability than did health care professionals. The authors conclude that parents are willing to accept life-sustaining care for extremely premature infants, despite the likelihood of severe disability. They further suggest that neonatal caregivers are less willing to provide such care and may influence parents to decline intensive treatment.

This is the opposite of our own experiences. As parents of extremely premature infants, we were given little information about probable outcomes and few, if any, choices about the treatment. Instead of being encouraged to limit care, many of us were threatened and made to feel like criminals for questioning even the most extreme medical measures. We are aware that experienced neonatal caregivers may be reluctant to have their own ELBW infants resuscitated and treated;² . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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