By Pauline Thiele In 2010 I was urged to write about our son, Liam, and submit the narrative for publication with the Journal of Medical Ethics. The three following three people, in the said order, were my greatest encouragement and support throughout the submission: Andrew Watkins (neonatologist), John Harris (the then editor-in-chief of JME/bioethicist), and […]
Category: Pregnancy
Fine-tuning the impairment argument against abortion
By Bruce Blackshaw and Perry Hendricks Why is it immoral to deliberately give a fetus fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)? In our paper Strengthening the Impairment Argument Against Abortion, we provided one possible answer: it is wrong because it deprives the fetus of a future of value. In other words, the future of an unimpaired fetus […]
Centring choice in birthing services; COVID-19 and maternal request caesarean sections
By Anna Nelson & Elizabeth Chloe Romanis During the COVID-19 pandemic pregnant and birthing people saw significant changes to the services they were offered. From March 2020 substantial restrictions were introduced in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, with some notable examples including bans on partners attending scans, limitations on the number […]
NICE Draft Quality Standards on FASD: A misplaced focus?
By Rachel Arkell. In early March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) launched the consultation period for the first draft of their Quality Standards on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), which covers the assessment and diagnosis of those affected by FASD. It is, of course, vital that diagnosis and support services are […]