In Psychology Today, Frederic Neuman wrote two painful blog posts about his experiences as a young doctor with a child born with a terrible deformity. His eyes were fused. Part of his brain was missing. His esophagus went straight into his lungs making feeding impossible. Usually children with this condition only live for an hour after birth, although there was one case of a child lasting a year. 

Neuman describes the pain of the staff that cared for the baby who lived for a week. The mother was told that her baby was dead. Neuman wonders if the baby's life should have been terminated immediately. 

This is just a horrible story. As a parent of a child with a disability, I am extremely, extremely worried about doctors who make life and death decisions like this, especially without any consultation with the parents. However, it sounds like this child had a painful and unnecessarily cruel death. Why didn't they just sedate the poor kid? 

What do you think?