HUNDREDS of premature babies born in Britain are dying unnecessarily because doctors believe resuscitating them is pointless, a leading paediatrician has warned.

Professor John Wyatt, consultant neonatologist at University College London hospital, says a laissez-faire culture in British hospitals is denying babies born at 23 weeks the chance of survival.

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, Wyatt says that up to 42% of babies born at 23 weeks survive at some British hospitals. However, the average national survival rate is only 10%-15%. Wyatt says this is because many doctors are not even attempting to save the babies.

Discussing his submission, Wyatt said: “There are large differences in ethical approaches between hospitals. Some will have had a very interventionist approach, and some of them will be laissez-faire.

“Many centres of excellence, including those from the US, Sweden and Australia, have published data showing survival figures of 30%-60% at 23 weeks and 40%-70% at 24 weeks. If the average outcome figures in the UK are so much worse, we must ask the question, why? The conclusion must be that babies are dying who could have survived to live a healthy life.”

The stage at which babies can survive outside the womb is central to the continuing debate over whether the upper limit for abortion for social reasons should be lowered. Some doctors argue that as babies born at 23 weeks survive, it is wrong to allow abortion this late for social reasons.

Others argue that only a small proportion of babies born at 23 weeks survive and many go on to suffer from disabilities. They insist there is no reason to change the age of viability, currently set at 24 weeks.

The debate comes to a head tomorrow when the House of Commons science and technology committee inquiry into abortion discusses the survival of very premature babies. The authors of a study of all such babies born in England in 2006, called EPIcure 2, are expected to tell the committee that, in the past decade, there has been little improvement in the survival rate at 23 weeks.

Professor Neil Marlow, president of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) and a lead author of EPIcure 2, is expected to say that, across England, just 10%-15% of babies born at 23 weeks gestation now survive. The BAPM said it is accepted practice in British neonatal units not to provide intensive care to babies born below 24 weeks.

Critics also point out that although Wyatt’s figures have been presented at scientific meetings they have not yet been published in a medical journal. They insist the EPIcure data are more reliable.

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