Today Baby Doe Died

Today was the day in 1982 when Baby Doe died in a maternity ward in a hospital in Indiana. He died because his doctor advised his parents that they could “do nothing.”

As covered in this post, Baby Doe was a child born in Bloomington, Indiana. He was born with a disconnected esophagus–a condition that at that time could be successfully repaired 90% of the time. But his doctor, Walter Owens, advised the baby’s parents to not consent to surgery and instead let him die. He advised them:

That it would still be a mongoloid, a Down’s syndrome child with all the problems that even the best of them have.  That they did have another alternative which was to do nothing.  In which case the child [would] probably live only a matter of several days and would die of pneumonia probably . . . . Some of these children . . . are mere blobs.

That was how Dr. Owens recounted the advice he gave Baby Doe’s parents in sworn testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Dr. Owens, himself, “had little experience with mental retardation, but he had a niece with a retarded child, and it seemed to be his view (though not necessarily his niece’s) that this had ruined his niece’s life.”

Two other doctors had advised to transfer the child to a hospital in Indianapolis for surgery. Dr. Owens reminded the parents that the surgery “could do nothing about the Down’s [sic] syndrome. *** ‘However, he informed the parents, ‘you do have an alternative,’” advising they could refuse consent for the surgery.  Regarding his niece’s child with intellectual disabilities:

Obviously this has colored my thinking on the survival of such children.  I believe there are things that are worse than having a child die.  And one of them is that it might live.

Jeffrey Lyon, a reporter, investigated the case and wrote a book entitled Playing God in the Nursery. From his interviews and investigation of medical records, he described Baby Doe’s very short life. By the fourth day, the baby boy

was crying from hunger, and his lips were parched from dehydration.  His ribs were sticking out, the result of respiratory strain caused by the tracheoesophageal fistula.  That afternoon, when the stomach acid started corroding his lungs, he had begun to spit blood.

Families petitioned to adopt Baby Doe and a lawsuit was brought to require medical care be provided. Dr. Owens testified in defense of his advice to let the baby die and other physicians testified that medical care should be provided. The court found:

Mr. & Mrs. Doe, after having been fully informed of the opinions of two sets of physicians have the right to choose a medically recommended course of treatment for their child in the present circumstances.

The court’s decision was concurred with by a Child Protection Committee hearing. A subsequent hearing was held to declare the child neglected under state law, but:

the Court finds that the State has failed to show that this child’s physical or mental condition is seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal, or neglect of his parents to supply the child with necessary food and medical care.

[Let that sink in for a moment].

The Indiana Court of Appeals denied an immediate hearing to review the decision and the Indiana Supreme Court denied a petition for emergency relief to order medical treatment.

Baby Doe died six days after he was born in 1982 on today, April 15. Cause of death:

chemical pneumonia, due to the regurgitation of his own stomach acid.

The gross injustice throughout the Baby Doe case is not something to be forgotten.

Update: In October 2014, I was able to bring a measure of justice, however small, to the town where Baby Doe was born and died, as relayed in this post.