Perla Godoy

Argument sketch
English 1101
April 25, 2016

Purpose: The purpose of my argument essay is to help parents understand

that treating low birth weight premature baby will cause the baby as well as
themselves more harm than good. The audience is parents with low birth
weight premature babies.

Treat or not to treat low-birth-weight premature babies.

When it comes down to whether to treat or not to treat premature babies there is
controversies. There are obviously two sides which are, yes, treat the child or not to
treat the child. In treatment decisions some neonatologist believe that every infant
should be treated. According to the text these neonatologist, resuscitate fully any
infant showing the slightest signs of life at delivery, regardless of its gestational age
or weight. They believe this is the right thing to do even though they know surviving
infants will be likely to have severe mental and physical impartments.
Other neonatologist only tries to help those who weigh more than 500 grams.
According to the text these type of neonatologist views the outcome of
extraordinary efforts as likely to be so grim as to make resuscitation an
unacceptable option. We generally keep them warm and let them expire by
themselves. These are not viable babies, and its crazy to do anything more.
Basically these neonatologists do not believe in trying to save every babies lives.
Most of the time these neonatologists are pro-abortion and believe in the quality of
life. They believe in not making extraordinary efforts to keep the baby since the
child will most likely suffer from serious physical and mental problems that will
withhold them from having a normal life. Those neonatologists who believe in
providing treatment for all infants because its a moral obligation are those who
oppose to abortion and euthanasia.
I believe that we should not treat low-birth-weight premature babies because they
are exposed to dealing with more deceases and they will not have a good quality of
life. They will constantly be in and out of hospitals and thats not what someone
should be dealing with for the rest of their life.
Also, severe under developed low-birth-weight babies are at higher risks for
developing serious physical and mental problems later on in life. For example,
extremely premature babes might be diagnosed with life-threatening disorders.
Many premature babies have problems eating, digesting food, and absorbing
nutrients. According to chapter 6 premature babys lungs are small and brittle and
fill up with secretions, making it impossible for them to breathe normally. They must

be put on a mechanical ventilator and they tend to suffer from repertory infections.
Poor prenatal development also makes smaller infants prone to cerebral
hemorrhages, or Brain bleeds that can result in a variety of devastating
consequences. Infants that have had brain bleeds are prone to seizures disorders,
blindness, low vision, deafness, mental retardation, and various subtler mental
difficulties that may show up only years later. (Page 4) As you can see low-birthweight babies can suffer from many disorders that will only complicate their life
even more. These disorders not only affect the child but it will also affect the entire
family, mostly the parents because they had their hopes up for a healthy baby.
Some babies will not be able to walk or talk and thats not a normal life for them.
Parents with premature babies should take into account the difficulties they may
face when treating premature babies. In the article Siblings Of premature babies:
Thinking about Their Experiences, if the premature baby is to be treated and
survived the parents would be have to deal with large amounts of stress. The birth
of a defective premature baby can be seen as a traumatic even to the family. Most
families expect a healthy baby when they announce the mother is in labor but when
they end up getting a premature impaired baby emotions of guilt and hopelessness
run though the mother. Not only do the parents suffer but so do the siblings of the
impaired child. When children are informed that the mother is expecting a baby so
theyll have a baby brother/sister, whatever the case may be, the child begins to
feel jealous and desires that the baby will not come.
Not only does the cost of treating premature baby affect the parents but overall
having an impaired child can affect the rest of the children in the house hold.
Parents with premature babies should take into account the difficulties they may
face when treating premature babies. In the article, Siblings of Premature Babies:
Thinking about Their Experiences, if the premature baby is to be treated and have
had survived the intense care until then the baby will be ready to go home. Once
the baby is home then the parents will have to deal with large amounts of stress.
The birth of a defective premature baby can be seen as a traumatic event to the
family. Most families expect a healthy baby when they announce the mother is in
labor but when they end up receiving an impaired premature baby emotion of guilt
and hopelessness run though the mother. Not only do the parents suffer but so do
the siblings of the impaired child. When children are informed that the mother is
expecting a baby, so theyll have a baby brother or sister, whatever the case may
be, the child begins to feel jealousy and will begins to desire that the baby will not
come.
As soon as the impaired premature baby is brought home the child might feel as if
they are the ones who caused the baby to become impaired. This can stress the
child out and make them become anxious and destructive. As you can see the
stress of having an impaired infant does not only fall on the parents but it also
affects the other children in the house in a negative and harmful way. The other
children are confused as to why those happened to their baby brother or sister.
The parents will also constantly question what they did wrong to deserve an
impaired child. The birth of a healthy baby might stir in the sibling all kinds of

Oedipal tensions, sexual phantasies, envy and jealousy, but it also reassures the
child that he is not omnipotent destructive and that his good internal and external
objects are strong and enduring. The healthy baby is proof that the mother has
other loves and relationships but it is also proof that her ability to create good
things in intact. In this way the child can mentally take in and keep a healthy ,
human-like live baby who can act as a menacing rival but , who is definitely less
conflictive than carrying in his mind a damaged or dead baby. The internalized
damaged baby carries the childs own destructive unmodulated feeling and can be
experienced as a very angry, frightening and persecuting baby. Children
experiencing this might consciously or unconsciously believe they tend to destroy
good things, fear broken or damaged objects, believe in their own omnipotent
destructive capacities for killing what they need, search desperately for a missing
something , check anxiously for signs of damaged done by someone else .
The trauma that could be produced by the premature birth situation might affect
their parenting skills, thus making the parents, for a period of time, emotionally less
resourceful and available to their new born baby and their other children and less
able to make use of any help offered. The parents of premature baby might be
experiencing acute anxiety, increased arousal and states of denial. They might
suffer from emotional numbness, psychological distress. They could also be
beginning to grieving process for the loss of the normal pregnancy, birth and baby.
Parents frequently underestimate the challenges they would have to face financially
if they forcefully treated a low-birth-weight baby. In a recent article, Tiny babies,
big cost, states tremendous amounts of money spent on premature babies.
Premature births cost society more than $26 billion a year. This includes money,
spent on medicine care for short- and long- term health conditions, educational
expenditures and lost productivity. What they mean by short and long term
conditions is that most premature babies are born impaired. These babies are faced
with higher risk or repertory problems as well as hearing and vision difficulties.
Many problems can arise for premature babies.
The cost to save premature babies is enormous. The average cost to keep a
premature infant is about $5,000 to $8,000 per day. An average family would not
have that type of money to spend everyday especially when premature babies are
kept on intense care for weeks, even months. Even though these babies are given
the most intense treatment to try to save their lives and finally be taken home but
most of these infants return to the hospital because they are not stable enough to
stay at home for good. Recent reports According to , Million Dollar Babies, says
the nation academy of science found that the 55,000 preemies born each year in
the US runs up about $26 billion in annual cost, mostly related to care in neonatal
intensive care units.
Overall, I strongly believe that parents should not treat their premature
babies. It will be hard to make that choice because its their child but its the better
option. Treating a premature baby will involve excessive amounts of money that
most families cannot afford to spend. And if the baby is treated by Medicare it will
take a lot of money from the government.

Works Cited
Camhi, Claudia. Siblings Of Premature Babies: Thinking About Their
Experiences. Infant Observation 8.3 (2005): 209-233. Academic Search
Complete. Web 25 Apr.2016.
Tiny babies, big cost. State Legislatures 34.10 (2008):6 Academic search
complete. Web 25 Apr.2016.
Million Dollar Babies: The Cost Of Care For Preemies Is Sky-High. Future
Survey 30.10 (2008): 21-22 Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr.2016
Munson, Ronald. Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Bioethics. 2004:
Clark Baxter, 9th Ed. Print.