Base Neonatal Care Decisions on Future

I read with great interest your articles on neonatal care for premature infants (“Heroics and Heartbreak,” Dec. 26). As the director of a therapeutic riding center for disabled people, I work with many children whose disabilities are a result of premature birth. These children are the fortunate ones who have been born to parents willing to do anything to improve the quality of their children’s lives.

I fully agree that parents need to have a say in the decisions regarding their children’s futures. My concern is with those parents who base their decisions on an unwillingness to raise a severely disabled child.

Before making the decision to have a baby, we should stop and consider the possibility that we might have a disabled child. Are we willing to take on that responsibility? Are we capable of loving a child regardless of the problems involved?

The parents I work with would not give up their disabled children for anything. They love them, and the children know this and are happy children. The parents don’t see the disability; they see the child. We could all learn from them.

NORA FISCHBACH

Encino