TY  - JOUR
T1  - Fetal Patients and Ethics Specialists: Advocating for a Humble Approach
A1  - Lynn Wilhelmy
A1  - Diana Heimes
JF  - Asian Journal of Ethics in Health and Medicine
JO  - Asian J Ethics Health Med
SN  - 3108-5059
Y1  - 2024
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/YHLzawrV2o
SP  - 136
EP  - 142
N2  - In prenatal medicine, ethics consultation offers a way to distribute responsibility for complex choices, especially when moral intuitions alone fail to provide clear guidance. However, it remains uncertain whether the established principles of ethics consultation can be directly applied to the unique circumstances of pregnancy. Our analysis focused on the particular forms of disagreement, conflict, and uncertainty of values that arise in prenatal care, and how an ethics consultation service (ECS) might address them, supported by a case illustration. At present, ethics facilitation and conflict resolution lack a universally accepted normative framework that covers prenatal diagnosis, therapeutic interventions, and reproductive decision-making. Nevertheless, these approaches can still support ethically demanding situations in prenatal medicine if two conditions are observed: (a) ECSs should avoid issuing prescriptive, content-heavy recommendations, and (b) they should not initiate conflict mediation that places the pregnant woman or couple as one of the disputing parties. It is essential for both ethics consultants and healthcare practitioners to recognize the current constraints and risks of ethics consultation in prenatal medicine, while collaboratively contributing to the development of standards tailored to this highly complex field.
UR  - https://smerpub.com/article/fetal-patients-and-ethics-specialists-advocating-for-a-humble-approach-nbl2dahtabccmvw
ER  -