Treating infants who may die

Journal of Clinical Ethics

Volumn 9, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 215-224

  Howe, Edmund G ^a  

^a UNIFORMED SERVICES UNIVERSITY OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; DECISION MAKING; FEMALE; HEALTH PERSONNEL ATTITUDE; HUMAN; INFANT; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; LONG TERM CARE; MALE; MEDICAL ETHICS; MENTAL STRESS; NEWBORN; NEWBORN DISEASE; NEWBORN INTENSIVE CARE; NOTE; PATERNALISM; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP; RISK ASSESSMENT; UNITED STATES;

DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP;

ATTITUDE OF HEALTH PERSONNEL; DECISION MAKING; DISCLOSURE; ETHICS, MEDICAL; FEMALE; HUMANS; INFANT; INFANT, NEWBORN; INFANT, NEWBORN, DISEASES; INTENSIVE CARE UNITS, NEONATAL; LIFE SUPPORT CARE; MALE; PATERNALISM; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; RISK ASSESSMENT; STRESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0032151332     PISSN: 10467890     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (10)

1. Societies' recognition of the exceptional nature of mothers' feelings is reflected in the laws involving infanticide. Punishments tend to be less strict when this occurs during the post-partum period.
2. J.H. Kennell, M.A. Trause, and M.H. Klaus, "Evidence for a Sensitive Period in the Human Mother," in Parent-Infant Interaction (New York: American Elsevier, 1975).
3. Joseph states in this regard, for example, ". . . the left hemisphere may deny the significance of an intuitive conclusion drawn by the right half of the brain, even when someone is pointing it out" [emphasis added]. R. Joseph, The Right Brain and the Unconscious (Boston: Plenum, 1993), 47.
4. W. Rubin, ed., Pablo Picasso/A Retrospective (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980), 308-09;
5. on Guernica, 342;
6. on Weeping Woman, 344;
7. and on Woman Crying, 345.
8. The question whether infants suffer when they experience pain is open to debate, and is beyond the scope of this discussion. For a definition of suffering as I am using it, see E.H. Loewy, "The Role of Suffering and Community in Clinical Ethics," The Journal of Clinical Ethics 22 (Summer 1991):83-89, at 83: "Suffering as used here will denote a complex and composite negative experience that all capable of experiencing will attempt to escape or avoid."
9. Others persons who are incompetent, such as adults who have dementia, would need this protection as well.
10. For the current status of this technique, see M.S. Kornhauser et al., "Adverse Neurodevelopmental Outcome after Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation among Neonates with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia," Journal of Pediatrics 132 (February 1998): 307-11.