Current ethical status and challenges in fetal cardiac intervention

Abstract

With the development of fetal medical imaging and minimal invasive interventional therapy, fetal cardiac intervention has taken into clinical practice in few medical centers.Fetal cardiac therapy may alter the abnormal hemodynamics of fetal circulation, which can lead to recruit hypoplastic ventricle, to create a two-ventricle circulation after birth, to remodel the fetal pulmonary vascular bed whose outlet is obstructed, and to provide a better prognosis for the suffered children.However, according to the limitations and risks of this cutting edge technique, as well as the dilemmas to balance the interests among fetus, mother/parents and doctor/medical institution, ethical challenges never fade away ever since the first beginning in this rising field.Following the encouraging research results published, the risk of the technique has been partly taken control.So in current status, how to balance the interests among three participants and to establish optimal routine clinical practice are the most challenging problems. Key words: Fetal cardiology; Prenatal therapy; Ethics