Ethical Issues In Neonatal Intensive Care Units

There are many decesions to make when parents find out they are having a baby. However no parent should have to decide whether there baby lives or dies. Unfortunatley the harsh reality is __ percent of infants are born prematurely every year forcing many parents to consider their babies life. One of the main questions that can be tackled when researching neonatal intensive care units is; how much authority over infants lives should parents have versus medical professionals. There are many ethical issues regarding infant care in neonatal intensive care units. The main issues come with who decides what baby receives what care. Parental consent should be at the forefront of every neonatologists mind, but the knowledge of the doctor must also

Autonomy refers to the idea of the freedom of the patient and their rights. The only problem with this principle is infants cannot make their own choices, so it is the parents autonomy that is now in regards. Parents now have the ability to decide how their childs health could affect them and the infant at stake for the following years. Beneficiance concerns the best intrest of the patient. What techniques and procedures give the baby the best benefit. Nonmaleficence is the princile that requires there is no harm done to the baby. The issue with nonmaleficence is most neonatal infants are already sufffering so theoretically they have already been done harm. Justice comes with the idea that parents and healthcare professionals will treat each other and the patient fairly and justly with truthfulness and respect. (Nadroo,2011, pg.188) Two researchers by the names of Duff and Campbell found that there were two prevalient theories when handling infant care. The first was a "disease oriented approach". This approach strived to save the infant no matter what and to not allow death as a possibility. The second philosophy was a " person oriented approach". In this approach the life of the infant is taken into consideration. quality of life is the main question with the "person oriented approach. (Orzalesi and Cuttini, 2011,

However these emotions tend to get a negative reputation because most of them are sadness based on the sickness of their baby. The truth is no matter what the emotions are, they should not discredit the parents ability to make the best descion for their child. Often times in science and medicine, facts are the base of descions. While facts are necesarry to keep infants alive the emotions and love from the parents can also make good descions. Infants are voicless beings that require emotional consederation as well as medical