One mother described part of the complications of consenting to her one-week-old child's high-risk heart surgery.'I can't imagine her being any more precious to me than she is now. I can hardly bear feeling so close to her as it is...I can't wait until I see her again. It's worse than being in love.'Can emotional parents be rational enough to give informed proxy consent? Research observations and interviews with many parents and practitioners in the wards, clinics and medical meetings in two London hospitals show how parents' moral emotions of fear and hope are central to their informed decision-making and voluntary consent. This record from the 1980s offers useful historical comparisons with today's paediatric cardiac services in both the remarkable progress over nearly 40 years and the continuing concerns.