Fetal imaging and fetal monitoring: finding the ethical issues.
Ethical issues are raised in connection with three technologies used to detect abnormalities or distress in the fetus in late pregnancy and during labor: (1) Ultrasound for fetal diagnosis, a technology used with increasing frequency in pregnancy and labor and one which some are advocating for routine use in pregnancy; (2) The newest of the imaging technologies, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is not now commonly used for fetal imaging, but may soon be; (3) The electronic fetal monitors, some of which work by application of the physical principles of ultrasound behavior and raise many of the same ethical issues. This paper argues that women-centered critiques of birthing technologies augment the concern with the health risks posed by those technologies with concerns about the risks that they pose to human relationships.
Whitbeck
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D001294:Attitude to Health; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005323:Fetal Monitoring / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000592:standards; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000592:standards*; D012945:Social Values; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000009:adverse effects; D014933:Women's Rights