Pro-life organisation Life has reacted with dismay to the suggestion by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that active and intentional euthanasia may be a valid option for some disabled newborns.

Matthew O'Gorman, a spokesman for Life, said in Inspire Magazine, "It is extremely worrying to find that doctors are advocating using killing as a treatment option ... We fear if this proposal becomes a reality that many parents will find themselves under intolerable pressure to consent to the deliberate killing of their own children.

He added, "Real compassion means killing pain, not patients."

Earlier in the week, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's disability rights group criticised college's suggestion of infanticide for disabled babies.

The college made the suggestion in its submission to a bioethical inquiry in which it said, "A very disabled child can mean a disabled family.

"If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were available, they might have an impact on obstetric decision-making, even preventing some late abortions, as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome."

No Less Human, the disabled rights wing of the SPUC, has expressed its distress at the proposal.

"Disabled people, particularly those with conditions regarded as 'severe' will be both appalled and afraid by the RCOG's call. Already we are aware that disabled babies are killed up to birth because of 'severe disability'.

"Once it is established that killing is acceptable on grounds of disability it is inevitable that it will spread to encompass increasing numbers of victims.

"Deliberate killing on grounds of disability is always wrong regardless of the age or status of the victim."

No Less Human now plans to demonstrate outside the college to express its opposition to the proposal.

The British Council of Disabled People, meanwhile, has also criticised the college, saying it was wrong to suggest that disabled babies' lives were less valuable than others'.