Dr John Wyatt on sick babies

What should we do with sick babies?

...But an entirely contradictory view towards the abnormal or preterm baby is also widespread, although frequently unspoken. According to this perspective, however deeply we may be moved by the abnormal baby's plight, we have to realize that he or she is in reality one of `Nature's rejects', the unfortunate consequence of a complex biological process which is frighteningly fallible and prone to accidents. If Nature in her wisdom has decided that this particular baby has no viable future and should be discarded, who are we to use the panoply of modern intensive-care techniques to thwart her wishes? Why waste scarce financial resources and emotional energy on this individual? Far better to ensure that the baby does not survive, and suggest to the parents that they try to have another.

That's an extract from his book Matters of Life and Death, with a foreword by John Stott.

Read more here.

Dr Wyatt will be speaking in a few weeks at the New College lectures on September 8-10, on the subject "Bioethics And Future Hope". If you have an interest in the topic, this looks well worth getting along to.

Trevor Cairney blogs it here.

A scary question with the right answer

Here is a wonderful story from Trevor Cairney about a tricky ethical question he was asked at a recent conference:

"What would you do if you were a doctor and a baby was born and it didn't breathe for 20 minutes."

I gulped and said:

"Darren, that's a very hard question, even for a doctor, and I have no medical training. Without knowing how long doctors wait before declaring a child brain dead, and without knowing case history concerning revival rates after 20 minutes, I guess, I'd want the doctor to keep trying to resuscitate the child until such times as they knew it would be impossible to revive him."

Darren slapped his hands together and cried out with great enthusiasm:

"That's the right answer. And you know why I know that?"

I replied, "No Darren, why?"

"Because I was that baby."

Read the entire useful post, "Christian Perspectives on Life and Death", here.

Trevor is doing a great work with CASE.

Write children's books

Here's a fine challenge from Trevor Cairney for Christians who have the ability to write children's books.

Children's stories and the gospel

Justin Taylor has linked to Trevor Cairney's post on Christian writing for Children, which is good news because what Trevor said deserves a wider readership.

Here's a quote from Trevor's post that I found fascinating:

The starting point for my seminar was the central proposition that the gospel of Christ is the central narrative to which virtually all other narratives have some relationship – certainly in the Western cultural tradition and literature. The central focus of the Bible is Salvation History; with its central narrative tracing both the history of Judaism and Christianity and God’s redemptive plan for his people. In the beginning God created…and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against him and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgement. But God always had a plan for such rebellion; a plan of redemption motivated by love. An amazing gift of grace; his own son sent to die that we might be restored to a relationship with him.

I have no idea at all how you work out that "the gospel of Christ is the central narrative to which virtually all other narratives have some relationship". I note that Trevor does qualify the statement somewhat, but now that he's put the thought into my head I am going to start reading fiction books with this question in mind. Wish I'd been at the seminar so I could have asked some follow-ups. I like the summary of the gospel that Trevor has given too, though I might have added something about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That, I suppose, is the ultimate happy ending, though not for his unforgiven enemies.

I have three girls under ten and I have often thought I would like to write stories for them. Trevor's post is a good encouragement to this and it would be terrific if a few people read it and were spurred on to making their own efforts.

Actually I did once tell my daughter a story about a cat that didn't keep his word, got lost and ended far from home without its parents. It was all rather unpleasant really now that I think of it. Maybe that's why I stopped trying. Right now our youngest loves The Little Red Hen because she can read the words for herself. Hmm. I reckon this blog entry is one paragraph too long, starting to ramble now, and the dreaded ellipsis seems almost inevitable...

Oh, I know what I wanted to ask. Anybody read any good kid's books lately?