Preemies, especially micro-preemies present ethical issues to parents as well as the medical community. Babies born before 23 weeks have virtually zero chance of survival and those born between 23-26 weeks have low survival rates. Disability rates for all preemies is higher, but very high with babies born so early. There are questions surrounding too much intervention and the pain which these babies go through in order to survive. Some people are also concerned about the cost of these medically complicated babies. If Bennett's hospital stay (relatively uncomplicated) of 32 days cost almost $400,000, imagine the cost for a much smaller baby who needs many medical interventions and stays 100 days or more. It is uncomfortable to think of these issues, they cause dissonance in my own brain. I'm not sure where I stand on resuscitation before a certain number of weeks. Where do you draw the line? How much do these babies suffer? What would I do if faced with that situation? The answers are unclear for me.
The Preemie Experiment was created to educate the world about the long-term effects of prematurity. The posts are written by a woman who has two preemies (25 weeker and 34 weeker). She tackles these complicated ethical issues, although answers are difficult to come by. The comments on some of the posts are quite heated. I uncomfortably visit this site to learn from this experienced community and clarify my own values.
http://thepreemieexperiment.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
Wow, that leaves you with a lot to think about. I can understand both sides, but my quality of life beliefs are so strong I would have a hard time allowing doctors to save my child that was extremely likely to be very disabled for the rest of their life. But there are the ones who pull through, and of course any mother wants their child to live. It's a tough one
Thanks for reading.
Over the past 2 years of writing blog posts on prematurity, and tackling some very hard topics, I myself have learned so much. That's my hope for the blog... that the tough questions can be talked about thus allowing both sides (and those in the middle) to understand each other.
Post a Comment