RT Journal
A1 Lantos JD
T1 JUstifiable and unjustifiable ageism
JF Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
JO Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
YR 2012
FD June 1
VO 166
IS 6
SP 580
OP 581
DO 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1809
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1809
AB 
Extremely premature babies are less likely than term babies or older children to receive lifesaving medical treatment. Furthermore, from doctor to doctor and from center to center, there is tremendous variation in the likelihood that an extremely premature baby will be treated. For example, in the 20 centers that are part of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network, 87% of babies born at 24 weeks of gestation were intubated in the delivery room.1 Among the centers, the rate of intubation for these babies ranged from 53% to 100%. Fifty-five percent of babies born at 24 weeks of gestation survived. If every baby was intubated, the survival rate would almost certainly have been higher. There is no other population of patients who would not be treated when their survival rates are that high.