|
 |
Unit 1: Babies
Unit 1: Babies includes accounts of five cases/situations involving infants. Each raises a number of ethical issues. The issues are not unique to the individual cases or even to cases that involve infants. They are issues for people of any age who are seriously ill or dying or compromised mentally or physically.
Babies can't speak for themselves. They are among the most vulnerable individuals in society. Who should be speaking for them? And what actions are in the best interests of a baby whose life starts out compromised or becomes difficult as a result of disease or accident? What are the rights of the babies, their parents, and the people who are taking care of them in the hospital?
In this unit we ask students to consider some challenging questions?questions about the value of life, about who has the right or obligation to make decisions on behalf of babies, about appropriate times for the courts to become involved or to stay out of decisions that affect imperiled infants, and about striking a balance among family, medical, legal, economic and social factors.
The cases in this unit explore the fair treatment of babies, their families, and the society as a whole. What actions in what circumstances are ethically defensible and which ones are not? Are there ever justifiable reasons to withhold life-sustaining treatments, to let imperiled babies die, to actually help sick babies die, or to do less for handicapped babies than for those who are healthy?
A baby's arrival into the world is a momentous event. Discussions about babies born at risk, while disturbing, should alert students to difficulties they could encounter in their lives. No one wants to have a baby who is not perfectly healthy, but not everyone is lucky.
|
|
