The Baby Doe regulations: views from perinatal social workers.

In 1984 the federal government issued the "Baby Doe" regulations, designed to protect the rights of handicapped infants. Members of the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers were asked to evaluate these regulations and were given the opportunity to comment on their impact. The authors present and discuss these comments with respect to the helpfulness of the regulations, physician discretion, parental rights, and the social work role.