Debate: should parents should be able to request non-resuscitation for all extremely-premature newborn infants?

Journal article

Abstract:: Infants who are born extremely prematurely can survive if they receive intensive medical treatment. However, they also have a high chance of dying, and a proportion of survivors have long term health problems and disability. In many parts of the world, if parents request it, an extremely premature infant can receive palliative care rather than active survivalfocused care at birth. But there are variations between countries as to whether or when this is permitted.

To help inform ethical debates across Asia and more widely, we present two contrasting views about parental discretion and the treatment of extremely preterm infants. In questions of this nature, disagreement and dissensus is inevitable. Differences in the outcomes of treatment, the resources available, and the values of society mean that we should not expect a uniform approach.

We identify points of potential consensus and compromise despite disagreement.

Files:: Wilkinson_and_Savulescu_2025_Debate_should_parents.pdf

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Language:: English
Keywords:: zone of parental discretion

extremely premature

intensive care

resuscitation

infant

parents
Pubs id:: 1991158
Local pid:: pubs:1991158
Deposit date:: 2024-04-18

Copyright holder:: Wilkinson and Savulescu.
Rights statement:: © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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