I understand this. My question arose from the fact that it seems like he only cares about the child dying before him, not the child's death overall. It was
> the idea of being told my 1 week old baby is going to die
> have I failed my baby so much as a parent that he won’t even grow to adulthood (much less have a wonderful, happy life)
It’s not exactly a rational feeling; it’s not like this baby was going to die through lack of parental effort or care or anything else that the parents have any real control over, so it’s not like they could have done anything differently.
Nonetheless, it can make you feel like an utter failure of a parent. To some people (I admit, not everybody), that is absolutely crushing.
> the idea of being told my 1 week old baby is going to die
not
> the idea of my child dying