John Wyatt.

Professor John Wyatt runs a neo-natal clinic at University College Hospital, London, with 15 doctors and 70 nurses caring for 400 premature babies per year. He faces extreme childbirth problems and ethical dilemmas over babies who are on the edge of viable life. Saving the life of a tiny baby involves the risk of permanent brain or motor damage, and this has implications for child and parents for years into the future. In some cases the best outcome may be to allow the child to die peacefully. In this interview, Baby Claire, born at 25 weeks, tiny with undeveloped lungs, is used as an example of the conflicts doctors and parents have to face. Doctors put her on a newly developed lung machine which 'fluttered' air into her lungs, and saved her life. However a brain ultrasound indicated a bad haemorrhage and she would probably have both motor and brain damage. Wyatt was ambivalent about what was best. At that point the parents were consulted. They decided to give her a chance. Several years later she cannot walk, but is a cheerful child and her parents love her. How can anyone decide what is a worthwhile life?