New research: Our Faculty Investigators, Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, MD, MPH, MS, and Erika Cheng, PhD, MPA, recently published work on periviable infant births and the challenges due to survival rates and potential morbidities for infant survivors. In this article, Tucker Edmonds and Cheng explore the complex ethical and legal landscape surrounding parental medical decision-making for periviable infants in the United States, discussing the evolution of federal and state laws. Medical decision making in this context is faced with the challenging ethical, legal, and emotional conundrums.
Impact: Periviable births make up approximately 0.5% of the total births in the United States. Periviable births are births that occur between 20 and 25 weeks of gestation and for which infants are at the threshold of viability. Within state laws, autonomy has been challenged when it comes to non-traditional family structures and the preservation of life is placed above preventing potential harm. Tucker Edmonds and Cheng advocate for the definition of legal parenthood to include a range of non-traditional family structures due to the current political climate. Their work expands the understanding of challenges that parental-clinician teams face, especially those having to do with diverse family structures that are disharmonic with archaic state and federal laws. The call for practical change in lawful implementation will help reconsider the political push for life preservation over potential harm reduction.
For more details, read the full article here.