Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2010
Abstract
Advances in modern medicine invite the assumption that medicine can control human biology. There is a perilous logic that leads from expectations of medicine's control over reproductive biology to the expectation of having a perfect baby. This article proposes that obstetricians should take a preventive ethics approach to the care of pregnant women with expectations for a perfect baby. We use Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic short story, "The Birthmark," to illustrate the perils of the logic of control and perfection through science and then identify possible contemporary sources of the expectation of the perfect baby. We propose that the informed consent process should be used as a preventive ethics tool throughout the course of pregnancy to educate pregnant women about the inherent errors of human reproduction, the highly variable clinical outcomes of these errors, the limited capacity of medicine to detect these errors, and the even more limited capacity to correct them.
Recommended Citation
Chervenak, Frank A; McCullough, Laurence B; and Brent, Robert L, "The perils of the imperfect expectation of the perfect baby." (2010). Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers. Paper 33.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/pedsfp/33
PubMed ID
20227050
Comments
This article has been peer reviewed. It is the authors' final version prior to publication in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Volume 203, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 101.e1-101.e5 The published version is available at DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2010.01.058. Copyright © Elsevier Inc.