An ethically justified, clinically comprehensive approach to peri-viability: gynaecological, obstetric, perinatal and neonatal dimensions.
Peri-viability, 22-26 completed weeks' gestational age, has generated ongoing clinical ethical controversies concerning the roles of abortion, caesarean delivery for fetal indication, neonatal resuscitation and limits on life-sustaining treatment of neonates. This paper provides a comprehensive, ethically justified approach to the clinical management of peri-viable fetuses and infants. We reviewed available data about the outcomes of peri-viable fetuses and developed an outcomes-based ethical framework that appeals to the ethical principles of beneficence, autonomy and justice. We identified beneficence-based, autonomy-based and justice-based considerations that should guide clinical judgement, the informed consent process, and decisions about termination of pregnancy, caesarean delivery and setting justified limits on life-sustaining treatment of neonatal patients. Ethics is an essential component of perinatal medicine because it provides physicians with an evidence-based, ethically justified, comprehensive approach to the gynaecological, obstetric, perinatal and neonatal dimensions of peri-viability.
Chervenak
F A
FA
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, NYPH-Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York 10021, USA. fac2001@med.cornell.edu
McCullough
L B
LB
Levene
M I
MI
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics*; D005260:Female; D046128:Fetal Therapies / Q000941:ethics*; D005328:Fetal Viability; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000941:ethics*; D018743:Perinatal Care / Q000941:ethics*; D011247:Pregnancy