Miss Fitz wouldnt for a moment suggest that the Nolan show were watching Slugger on this subject, so comments made by Mr Nolan on the show this morning were obviously a matter of sheer coincidence.
I have provided the link, but I have transcribed the comments accurate to the basic meaning intended, I hope:
“Decisions are made by doctors every day of every week. Within that decision making has to be the consideration of the probability of success. Ethical decisions have to made in medicine.
We cannot have hosptials and doctors being bullied. Bullied by the media. Bullied by programmes like this when they do not think (the patient) has a good chance of life”
These comments were being made to another father whose child has a condition similar to baby James, and who also want their daughter to travel to Germany for the procedure. The real difficulty for this second family was that they live in the Western Board, and the funding was being debated over there. The dad suggested that they might rent a house in Belfast to obtain a BT address and then apply to the Eastern Board for funding.
I’m trying really hard not to make or encourage moral judgements on the families who are being guided by their expert medical teams, and who would travel the earth for treatment to save the life of their baby. However, I am calling for journalism such as this to be informed, sensible, responsible and cautious.