Such questions would never come into play for an adult with a heart attack or stroke, Bellieni noted. They also have a high risk of ending up disabled, yet "any doctor" would rush them in for treatment.
And, he explained, the treatment would be solely in the patient's interests. For the very premature baby, on the other hand, his parents' interest is taken into account and unless they explicitly plead on his behalf, "many doctors and many protocols of many hospitals avoid treating him. They leave him to die."
He called this policy "absurd," citing a fundamental discrimination between two equal human beings in such action.
Much of the problem comes down to ethics, and a lot of the literature out there promotes "the myth of autonomy," said Dr. Bellieni. This "says that you can do everything you decide, you just have to decide it and it's automatically ethical."
What is needed is an ethic of solidarity, he said, one that considers the baby another human being and utilizes current scientific research.
Doctors have seen that babies born just 22 weeks after conception have a hope of survival. In many places including parts of the U.S., however, children are still untreated if born before 25 weeks.
They must be given a chance, Bellieni said, and if the baby does not respond "one mustn't insist in an unreasonable manner."
The point is that standard protocol needs to keep up with research, he said.
He praised the recent legislation in Nebraska protecting unborn children from abortion after 20 weeks of gestation because of their ability to feel pain. This is an "optimal" piece of legislation, he said, because it takes scientific study into account.
However, many laws and protocols continue to be based on old research, he said, while "in the meantime science has moved ahead."
Advances in medicine come little by little, but they are steady. All told, there has been a "huge leap" in progress from the 1970s to today, he said. Most premature babies born under two pounds died at birth back then, while today 90 percent of them survive.
Ten years ago it was possible for babies to survive if born at 25 weeks, now studies show that it's possible, although with a low probability, that they can survive after birth at 22 weeks.
"It seems little, but it's a grand step ahead," said Bellieni.
There are many studies out there that show how science is "always an ally of reason when it says yes to life," he observed.
Advances like operating on a fetus in the womb for certain diseases and malformations so that it is given a better chance of surviving, are "not a fantasy of the future," but today's reality, he underscored.
It all comes down to the fact that when you treat someone who is sick, "è una cosa bellisima," he said. "It's a beautiful thing."