Survival after extremely preterm birth

doi:10.1136/bmj.39559.518391.BE

BMJ 2008;336:1199-1200 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39559.518391.BE (published 9 May 2008)

Editorials

Survival after extremely preterm birth

Viability is not determined solely by gestational age

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Last week, proposals in the UK to lower the 24 week deadlinefor abortion were rejected in the House of Commons. Decisionsinvolving late abortion and the care of extremely preterm infantsoften result from strongly held beliefs rather than evidence.To a large extent this is understandable as these decisionsare personal. However, when moral judgments are imposed on thoseholding different views and when the rights of the infant, beit to life or death, are in danger of colliding with those ofparents and society the need for evidence is paramount.

In the accompanying study, Field and colleagues compare survivalfigures for two adjacent time periods, 1994-9 and 2000-5, forinfants born at a gestational age of 22 weeks to 25 weeks andsix days in a geographically defined region of the United Kingdom,the former Trent health region.¹ During this 12 year period,there was no . . . [Full text of this article]

Neena Modi, professor of neonatal medicine

¹ Imperial College London SW10 9NH

n.modi@imperial.ac.uk

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Survival of extremely premature babies in a geographically defined population: prospective cohort study of 1994-9 compared with 2000-5: David J Field, Jon S Dorling, Bradley N Manktelow, and Elizabeth S Draper
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Rapid Responses:

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Was this editorial politically motivated?: Peter J Saunders
bmj.com, 12 May 2008 [Full text]
Re: Was this editorial politically motivated?: Fiona Godlee
bmj.com, 13 May 2008 [Full text]
Gestational Confusion: Anthony D G Roberts
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Antecedant events to premature delivery hinder the premature infant: Malcolm John Dickson
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