Maternal-fetal conflicts, specifically court-ordered Cesarean sections, are explored from a legal and ethical perspective. An increase in technology, combined with the rise of bioethics, the respect for autonomy in medical decision-making, and the legal doctrine of informed consent have created an atmosphere in which conflicts may occur between the pregnant woman and her fetus. The scant legal precedent in this area does not provide a clear standard for evaluating cases in which a pregnant woman with a viable fetus refuses a recommended Cesarean section. The analysis first examines the clinical aspects of a Cesarean delivery, and then turns to a discussion of the legal precedent and the potentially analogous areas of law (i.e. abortion, parent-child relationships, and organ donation). In addition, there is an examination of the ethical and policy considerations, which weigh heavily in favor of honoring the pregnant womans wishes over the perceived benefit for the fetus. Finally, a judicial standard is proposed which combines the legal and ethical analyses, and concludes that a court should virtually never override a competent patients decision to refuse a Cesarean section.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12062006-142423 |
| Date | 23 January 2007 |
| Creators | Ayoub, Emily M. |
| Contributors | Anne Schiff, Alan Meisel, Mark Wicclair, Elizabeth Chaitin |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12062006-142423/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds