The perils of the imperfect expectation of the perfect baby.

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.

journal_name

Am J Obstet Gynecol

authors

Chervenak FA,McCullough LB,Brent RL

doi

10.1016/j.ajog.2010.01.058

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2010-08-01 00:00:00

pages

101.e1-5

issue

2

eissn

0002-9378

issn

1097-6868

pii

S0002-9378(10)00088-8

journal_volume

203

pub_type

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