UENPS ethical charter of newborns’ rights

EURAIBI foundation approves all points of the UENPS chart

1. Every newborn has the right to be preserved from pain. Provoking pain has to be considered malpractice and abuse.

2. Any mutilation may never be justified, only circumcision is allowed but when the necessary analgesia is given.

3. All newborns enrolled in clinical trials should receive special guarantees about the amount of blood to be taken. Pain and stressful conditions should be proscribed from clinical trials, and all studies that do not respect this observances should be rejected by scientific journals.

4. Clinical trials may use placebos only when no standard treatment for that disease exists; in other cases, the new drug/treatment should be compared with the gold-standard.

5. When a decision of withholding or withdrawing intensive care is taken, the presence of the family, the stress avoidance and the use of

opportune analgesia should be always assured to the baby.

6. Parents should always be informed about the mortality risk and about the palliative cares and it’s necessary to encourage their participation. This information should hopefully be given before birth. Intensive care should not be withheld or withdrawn in the interest of third parties, namely of parents, but only in the baby’s interest.

7. It should be made no attempt to keep alive newborns whose immaturity is higher than the lowest limit of viability. This right should consider the real local possibilities.

8. A future disability is not a sufficient reason to withhold the intensive therapy.

9. It is babies’ right that countries and health systems consider the economic and social support to families of sick babies as a priority.

10. Physicians and nurses should be prevented from burnout in the interest of babies: hospitals should guarantee all the tools (e.g. psychological help or affordable workload) to achieve this aim.