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Recently, this issue has gained much attention in the international media, not least as a result of developments in the Netherlands. An existing protocol1 concerning this question, produced by paediatricians of the University Medical Center Groningen, caught the eye of the public and has led to several misleading newspaper and television reports claiming that disabled newborn children would be killed in Dutch hospitals for more or less eugenic reasons. I have elsewhere commented on this inaccurate view on the actual Dutch medical practice in this regard and stressed that in the last decades Dutch efforts to find adequate ways of dealing with this end-oflife issue have always been based on the utmost respect for human life, human dignity and individual autonomy: there have been no recent changes in the Dutch interpretation of these values that would clearly infringe on disabled newborn children’s best interests.2 Nevertheless, the legal admissibility of end-of-life decisions regarding these children remains one of the most difficult issues in Dutch health law.3
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