The Ethical Dilemma And Problems Of Caring And Treating...

Every 4 Â ½ minutes a baby is born premature and/or with a birth defect. According to the CDC, the percentage of babies born in the U.S that are premature or have some kind of birth defect is 9.6% with a slight increase since 2015 of 9.63%. The ethical dilemma and problems of caring and treating premature and congenitally ill infants is not new. In the past, critically ill neonates were weighed every day, kept warm, breast fed, and kept isolated away from others. They are often sent home to be cared for by the parents and maybe a midwife and placed in an incubator that was made of scrap materials. Neonatologist, nurses and parents would only hope for the best turn out of the infant. Premature and critically ill babies either lived or died without any kind of medical intervention at all. It wasn’t until 1922 that the intensive care unit (NICU) was established in hospitals. Even with the establishment of the NICU and advanced technology the ethical questions still arise. The Nuffied Council on Bioethics (2006) report Critical Care Decisions in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine states there are three main ethical issues surrounding neonatal intensive care by both professionals and the public which includes the borderline of viability, fetal medicine and the critical care decision-making for babies receiving intensive care (Teasdale, D. 2007). The idea of the viable infant has changed over the years with the continuing progress and growth of the neonatal intensive care unit, making