Question
What are the laws regarding the care of defective children?
Answer
There are lengthy discussions about the institutionalization of children who have severe physical or mental defects in Nishmas Avraham, vol.5, pp.57-60 and 79-82. Regarding life-and-death decisions, such children (or defective adults) have no special status; even though their quality of life may be very low-grade, the commandment to preserve life is applicable to them. A guardian, or even a parent, is not empowered to make life-or-death decisions even for a mentally incompetent person.