If We Knew is a lyrical and passionate documentary about paediatricians who work in an intensive-care unit for premature newborns at Groningen’s University Hospital. A film essay about the compassion needed to heal the sick and also occasionally needed to hasten the death of a sick child who is suffering unbearably and without hope.
In 2005, religious groups in Italy and the U.S. accused Dutch paediatricians of using Nazi methods and allegedly killing premature newborns because of their handicaps.
Yet doctors have sworn the Hippocratic oath that they will do all they can to heal the sick and save lives. Thanks to modern technology they can do more and more. As a consequence they have to ask themselves if every human being who can be kept alive will lead a life worth living. Should every life be saved at whatever cost?
From up close and without comment, If We Knew shows how a group of paediatricians cope with tough ethical questions and the impossible decisions they have to make.