Abstract
This is the story of neonatology or, at least, one side of the story of neonatology: You look for techniques which will allow you to reduce morbidity and mortality in the babies you are already trying to save. You find those techniques. And then you begin to wonder about applying them to babies just over the borderline, a little younger and a little smaller. And you make that jump for good humanitarian reasons-because you see a baby who is struggling to survive, who is almost making it, because a family begs you to try. But also for the other reasons which drive doctors: to be a hero, to see if it can be done, to push the envelope. And then, in their turn, those become the babies you can save-but for whom you would like to improve outcome, and you look for new refinements of that technology. The short history of neonatology is a history of pushing back the borders, whether or not that was the goal of the research; the pace of change means whatever you learned when you trained is by definition obsolete.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | The Turn to Ethics |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Pages | 65-83 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Edition | 2nd |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781135205263 |
ISBN (Print) | 0415922259, 9780415922265 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2013 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities
- General Social Sciences