Playing God in the NICU. Ethical guidelines focus on what seems best for the handicapped infant--Saint Vincent Health Center, Erie, PA.
Physicians, nurses, and administrators of Saint Vincent Health Center, Erie, PA, embarked on a project to refine ethical standards regarding the treatment of severely handicapped infants to meet current government regulations and to express the hospital's Catholic ethical ideals. The guidelines they developed do not lead to precise conclusions; rather, they direct the search for right decisions. Complicating the development of guidelines are psychological considerations, medical ambiguities, and economics. One reaction to the attempt to establish guidelines for decision making for very ill and handicapped infants is predictable: What right does anyone have to decide who will live and who will die? Who can play God? But healthcare providers must all play God because they have no alternative. If playing God means making life-and-death decisions, then being stewards of human life involves just such a responsibility. Medical professionals working with severely handicapped infants know they cannot avoid this responsibility. Caring human beings simply have to decide for helpless others. The guidelines developed by the Pediatrics Ethics Committee at Saint Vincent Health Center focus on what seems to be best for the dependent and helpless infant, who rightly has a claim on our support, care, love, and concern.
D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000628:therapy*; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003657:Decision Making; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004989:Ethics; D028741:Ethics Committees, Clinical; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000592:standards*; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000592:standards*; D018579:Patient Selection; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012935:Social Justice; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014481:United States; D026712:Value of Life; D028761:Withholding Treatment