Ethical Issues in Maternal-Fetal Medicine

by Donna L. Dickenson

Overview

This volume brings together an unusually broad range of experts from reproductive medicine, medical ethics, and law to address the important ethical problems in maternal-fetal medicine which impact directly on clinical practice. The book is divided into parts by the stages of pregnancy, within which the authors cover four main areas: the balance of power in the doctor-patient relationship and the justifiable limits of paternalism and autonomy; the impact of new technologies and new diseases; disability and enhancement; and difference—to what extent should the clinician respect the tenets of other faiths in a multicultural society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521662666
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/07/2002
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Donna Dickenson (b.1946) was previously Leverhulme Reader in Medical Ethics and Law at Imperial College London; she has also held positions at the Open University and Yale University. She has written, co-written or edited seven books in medical ethics, including The Cambridge Workbook in Medical Ethics (2001, with Dr Michael Parker), and has been principal investigator on several European Commission, Wellcome Trust and Department of Health projects, primarily concerned with widening ethics education for medical practitioners. Her journal of publications, about forty in all, include articles in the British Medical Journal, Journal of Medical Ethics, Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics, and other leading refereed journals. She was Secretary of the fifth International Association of Bioethics conference in London and also heavily involved in organising the simultaneous Feminist Approaches to Bioethics conference. Her 1997 book, Property, Women and Politics, developed a feminist reconstruction of philosophical concepts concerning property and applied them to property in the body, particularly such issues in reproductive ethics as abortion, ownership of fetal and ovarian tissue, and contract motherhood.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: recent debates in maternal-fetal ethics: what are the ethical questions? Donna Dickenson; 2. Overview: a framework for reproductive ethics Carson Strong; Part I. Generic Issues in Pregnancy: 3. Multi-cultural issues in maternal-fetal medicine Sirkku Hellsten; 4. HIV in pregnancy: ethical issues in screening and therapeutic research Paquita de Zulueta; 5. Genetic screening: should parents seek to perfect their children genetically? Rosemarie Tong; 6. Is there a duty not to reproduce? Jean McHale; 7. Between fathers and fetuses Cynthia Daniels; 8. Restricting the freedom of pregnant women Susan Bewley; Part II. Inception of Pregnancy: New Reproductive Technologies: 9. Ethical issues in embryo intervention and cloning Françoise Shenfield; 10. A case study in IVF: paternalism and autonomy in a 'high-risk' pregnancy Gillian Lockwood; 11. The ethics of secrecy in donor insemination Heather Widdows; Part III. First and Second Trimester: 12. Ethical and social aspects of evaluating fetal screening Elina Hemminki; 13. Prenatal counseling and images of disability Priscilla Alderson; 14. Models of motherhood in the abortion debate Eileen McDonagh; 15. Who owns embryonic and fetal tissue? Donna Dickenson; 16. The fewer the better? Ethical issues in multiple gestation Mary Mahowald; Part IV. Third Trimester: 17. Caesarean section - who chooses, the woman or her doctor? Wendy Savage; 18. Compliance and non-compliance of pregnant women with doctors' preferences Susan Sherwin and Françoise Baylis; Part V. Neonatal Life: 19. Do new reproductive technologies benefit or harm children? Christine Overall; 20. Are there lives not worth living? Severe handicap and the 'worthless life' Rebecca Bennett and John Harris; 21. Ethical issues in withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from handicapped neonates Neil McIntosh; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This is an important new text, not only for clinicians working in the field of human reproduction, but also for philosophers, ethicists and lawyers. Each chapter provides a thought-provoking essay on a contemporary issue relating to reproductive medicine that could well constitute the course work of a medical ethics major." Journal of Paediatric Child Health

"This book is to be commended both for the breadth of the intellectual and clinical area it surveys and for its interesting, interdisciplinary mix of...writers." Medical Humanities Review

From the Publisher

Focusing on the implications of ethics for clinical practice, 12 chapters by philosophers, social scientists, legal scholars, and doctors address the power inherent in the doctor-patient relationship, the impact of new technologies and new diseases, disability and enhancement, and diversity. Particular attention is given to the justifiable limits of paternalism and autonomy, and to the issues that arise at various stages of pregnancy and neonatal care. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)