Euthanasia for disabled child

A couple with a two year old who had an incurable brain disability have brought up the idea of euthanasia for disabled children to the public and government.

An inquest heard yesterday that after their two-year-old girl was tentatively diagnosed with Rett syndrome, the despairing parents asked a paediatrician whether there was legal or medical support for euthanasia.

The father later said that the toddler was ''dragging us down'' and asked: ''Why do they keep children with these disabilities alive? It doesn't seem fair on the child.''

Less than three months later, in December 2007, the girl drowned in an inflatable pool at her family's Curl Curl home.

The inquest heard the girl's parents struggled to come to terms with her condition. Sergeant Stephen Kelly, assisting the coroner, said they saw no future for themselves or their daughter and spoke of their lives being ''wasted''.

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