Editor—Aidan MacFarlane argues that further funding for neonatal and paediatric intensive care should not be provided unless funding for the long term needs of severely handicapped children is guaranteed.1 His comments imply that neonatal intensive care produces more neurologically impaired survivors, which in turn leads to greater cost in the long term.

In fact, improved survival in very low birthweight (VLBW) infants has been accompanied by a fall in intracranial haemorrhage and cerebral palsy, probably owing to a combination of antenatal steroids and …