Confronting ambiguity: identifying options for infants with trisomy 18.
Identifying ethically allowable options for infants with trisomy 18 has become more challenging as medical standards of practice shift, based on emerging scientific data and changing societal perceptions of disability. Lack of a stable professional standard of practice ought not prevent ethicists from facilitating a consensus; rather, these "unsettled cases" require an individualized, narrative approach that allows the values of the family and the particularities of each case to provide the necessary additional moral grounding.
Comfort and Palliative Care Team, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, CA, USA. sderrington@chla.usc.edu
Sabrina F
SF
Derrington
April R
AR
Dworetz
D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18; D032921:Consensus; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics*; D033061:Ethics Consultation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000941:ethics*; D014314:Trisomy