IS THE ISSUE THE PRICE OF A CHILDS LIFE, OR THE FUTILITY OF HEROIC MEASURES

Britain's High Court has been asked to rule whether a $160 000 experim ental treatment with a 1% chance of saving the life of a 10-year-old g irl should be paid for by the National Health Service. Child B, who ha s had one bone-marrow transplant, has had acute myeloblastic leukemia for a year and is near death. However, after her Cambridge doctors adv ised that further treatment would not be beneficial, her family found a hematologist willing to try an experimental treatment and a second t ransplant. The media debate in Britain has focused on financial aspect s of the situation, not on the usually futile use of heroic measured.