While it is important to make parents of severely neurologically damaged newborns aware of the difficulty in predicting their child’s survival chances or future disabilities, it is also crucial to inform them of the statistical evidence about outcomes for their child’s condition.
Though body size can be altered with environmental or behavioral changes, anatomic shape, which appears to be genetically determined, cannot be changed except by surgery, trauma, or illness.
Hydration at the end of life may be much less beneficial than generally assumed, but the emotional significance of nourishment to caregiving should not be underestimated.