Modern neonatal medicine raises a series of fundamental ethical questions. In the confrontation with these and in attempting to solve them, basic concepts concerning human life and death should be discussed. On what values do we base our practice? Terms such as human, right to life, sanctity of life, equality, and justice should all be considered with reference to the sick newborn baby. Leading Anglo-American contemporary philosophers who deal with such concepts have a tendency to link them to the autonomy of the individual. Is this a fruitful approach when dealing with ethical questions in neonatal medicine? In the following, I will exemplify this to elucidate the problem.