“…However, little is known about the responses of parents whose newborns weigh less than 500 g. Instead of focusing on the experience of parents, the literature has focused on outcome data and the ethical aspects of providing or withdrawing aggressive treatment for these newborns. Ethical dilemmas have evolved because of extremely high mortality rates for newborns weighing less than 500 g at birth, which have remained greater than 90% for the past decade (Davis, 1993;Hack & Fanaroff, 1986, 1988Hernandez, Offutt, & Butterfield, 1986;Hoffman & Bennett, 1990;Whyte et al, 1993). Although care providers have attempted to establish weight and maturity-related guidelines for providing and withdrawing treatment (Allen et al, 1993;Davis, 1993;Whyte et al, 1993), these efforts are complicated by reported case studies of the few intact survivors within this population (Amato, 1992;Coccia, Pezzani, Moro, & Minoli, 1992;Ginsberg et al, 1992;Muraskas et al, 1992;Optiz et al, 1993;Sherer, Abramowicz, Bennett, Mercier, & Woods, 1992).…”