There was good news and bad news in the infant-mortality statistics released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services. The number of babies who died before their first birthday fell from 9.7 per 1,000 in 1989 to 9.1 per 1,000 last year, the largest annual drop since 1981. The decline in infant mortality was 6%, in contrast to an average 2.5% annual decline in the 1980s. But the U.S. still trails 19 other nations, including some, like Singapore and Spain, that are less affluent. More troubling still, the death rate for black infants, 17.6 per 1,000, was more...
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