The Medical Right to Take Away Miracles

(CBS News) British doctors behind a new study say that many cases in which parents insist on continuing treatment even though medical professionals believe the child has no hope of recovery are motivated by religious beliefs and the hope for divine intervention.

In a study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, doctors from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London asked for lawmakers to change the current British legal system to allow physicians to have greater influence in cases with terminally ill patients, adding parents' religious beliefs should not be a "determining factor." Researchers argued parents waiting for a miracle are putting their children through unnecessary and painful treatments.

"Spending a lifetime attached to a mechanical ventilator having every bodily function supervised and sanitized by a carer or relative, leaving no dignity or privacy to the child or adult has been argued as inhumane," the researchers wrote. "We suggest it is time to reconsider current ethical and legal structures and facilitate rapid default access to courts in such situations when the best interests of the child are compromised in expectation of the miraculous."