Ethical Decision Making in the Resuscitation of Extremely Premature Infants: The Health Care Professional’s Perspective

Abstract

Across Canada, the rate of preterm birth (i.e., at < 37 weeks’ gestation) has been steadily increasing. Advances in perinatal medicine and neonatal intensive care have resulted in an increased capacity to intervene at the extremes of prematurity, leading to an increase in the overall survival of infants born at early gestations. There has been little corresponding decrease in long-term complications. As a result, additional stresses are placed on neonatal intensive care units across the country, impacting families, health care professionals, and society as a whole. Moral distress and moral residue are often cited in the neonatal-perinatal literature as stressors experienced by those who participate in the resuscitation decision-making process. They are directly related to the challenge of making a concrete decision about life and death at extremely early gestations in the context of longterm uncertainty. In this review, we performed a systematic search of medical and ethics literature pertaining to resuscitation at the extremes of prematurity. The perspective of health care professionals is explored, including how definitions of viability and parental perspectives contribute to the decision-making process. We argue for the necessity of further research exploring the inter-professional context of ethical decision making at the extremes of prematurity.