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Controversial move

Church of England leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. The move is expected to spark massive controversy. The Church leaders' call for some children to be allowed to die — overriding the presumption that life should be preserved at any cost — comes in response to an independent inquiry, which is to be published this week, into the ethics of resuscitating and treating extremely premature babies. The decision by religious leaders to accept that in some rare cases it may be better to end life than to artificially prolong it is a landmark for the Church. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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