Dilemmas in fetal medicine

Premature Application of Technology or Responding to Women's Choice

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2265739
AutoresClare Williams (0000-0001-6315-5534, King's College London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen28
Número1
Páginas1-20
Fecha de publicación2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00480.x
PMID16509940
OpenAlexW2081185272
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas26
Referencias citadas32

It is argued that innovative health technologies (IHTs) may be changing the roles of both patients and health practitioners, and raising new issues, including ethical, legal and social dilemmas. This paper focuses on the innovative area of fetal medicine. All fetal treatment necessitates accessing the fetus through the pregnant woman's body, and non-surgical treatments have long been a part of pregnancy care. However, recent developments in this area, including the increasing routinisation of sophisticated antenatal ultrasound screening and the introduction of treatments including fetal surgery, may mark a shift in this specialty. The paper explores such shifts from the perspectives of medical and midwifery practitioners working in two Fetal Medicine Units. It examines the apparent effects of the orientation of fetal medicine on prevalent conceptualisations of the maternal-fetal relationship, and some of the consequences of this. It is argued that new forms of uncertainty, including complex risk and diagnostic information, and uncertain prognostic predictions set within the rhetoric of non-directive counselling and women's choice, are leading to unprecedented ethical dilemmas within this area. More widespread debate about such potential dilemmas needs to take place before, rather than following their introduction

Directive · Family medicine · Fetus · Obstetrics · Pregnancy · Specialty · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Ethics in Clinical Research · Medicine · Prenatal Screening and Diagnostics