I really urge everyone to try to see this at least once. I saw it back in 1987, and it blew me away with it's horrendous story about modern medicine, medical ethics, and social pressures...as well as personal tragedy.
John Lithgow and Mary Beth Hurt are a middle aged couple looking forward to the culmination of Hurt's pregnancy. Lithgow is a partner in a plant and gardening company in a small town, and makes a comfortable living. But one day, during the pregnancy, Hurt is rushed to the hospital with a premature delivery. The baby (a little girl) is weak and barely formed (if you think of the trimester system in the abortion laws, Baby Girl Scott has barely reached the end of the second trimester). What are her chances? The doctors say they will do everything possible, but admit the chances are very slim for survival...or even a normal life if the baby survives.
And here the ethics starts getting involved. The hospital is a religious one, and it will not consider killing the fetus. Lithgow and Hurt are constantly being lectured on the ethics of supporting human life, even though in this case one wonders if what one is witnessing is really life that is worth living. As one crisis after another connected to the care of the baby develops, we see these "ethical" doctors tormenting the poor girl with all kinds of tubes and machines to preserve her life. And her parents have to okay and watch all this! Nobody among their families or friends (including Lithgow's partner) support Lithgow and Hurt in their anger at the long, drawn out death of their child. Don't forget - it's not the problem of anyone but Lithgow and Hurt, and they must abide with the ethical point of the community about the "sanctity of life". By the way, Lithgow also gets the other side of "medical ethics": he's constantly getting outrageously huge medical bills for the attempts by the staff of the hospital to keep Baby Girl Scott alive!
The entire affair ends up in court - I won't say what happens.
The film (as far as I know) has never been shown again on television. I suspect that it's viewpoint about the right-to-life extremists among us is too difficult to swallow. Maybe so, but I really advise everyone to see the film at least once.
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