[1] A somewhat similar situation in 1983 involving a "Baby Jane Doe" again brought the issue of withholding treatment for newborns with disabilities to public attention.

Baby Jane Doe was born on October 11, 1983, in Long Island, NY, with an open spinal column (meningomyelocele), hydrocephaly and microcephaly.

[3][4] Vermont attorney and right-to-life advocate[4] Lawrence Washburn brought suit in New York to obtain guardianship[4] and an order to have the surgery performed.

[2] Also, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received a complaint that Baby Jane Doe was being denied aggressive medical treatment.

HHS repeatedly requested copies of the infant's medical records (past October 19) under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The court also found the parents' decision was "reasonable" based on the "medical options available and genuine concern for the best interests of the child."

The Court of Appeals ruled that the Rehabilitation Act did not give HHS any ability to interfere with the "treatment decisions involving defective newborn infants".

[1] In 1986, those regulations were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Bowen v. American Hospital Association (AHA), et al., on the grounds that the autonomy of the states had been violated and that the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 did not apply to the medical care of disabled infants.