Fetal Abuse Research Articles

Psychotic Denial of Pregnancy: Phenomenology and Clinical Management

Psychotic denial of pregnancy in chronic mentally ill women may place the women and their fetuses at high risk of postpartum emotional disturbance, precipitous or unassisted delivery, fetal abuse, and neonaticide. Psychotic denial of pregnancy is illustrated with case reports from an inpatient program for pregnant mentally ill women. Women who denied their pregnancies tended to have a diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia, to have previously lost custody of children, and to anticipate separation from the baby they were carrying. The author suggests that treatment for such patients should take place in a setting that integrates comprehensive psychiatric and obstetrical care and may include pharmacotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, and evaluation of the patient's parenting skills and support network to assess whether she is able to keep her baby.

Fetal Abuse: An Exploration of Emerging Philosophic, Legal, and Policy Issues

Fetal Abuse: An Exploration of Emerging Philosophic, Legal, and Policy Issues

Fetal Abuse: An Exploration of Emerging Philosophic, Legal, and Policy Issues

IN APRIL 1987, a judge in a San Diego court heard a case against a woman, Pamela Stewart Monson, whose baby was born braindead after she ignored her doctor's warnings about her behavior and its potential effects on the fetus. Her doctor had warned her to refrain from street drugs and sex and to seek medical care in case of vaginal bleeding. But prosecutors charged that on the day she delivered, she took amphetamines, had sex with her husband, and didn't call paramedics until twelve hours after bleeding began. Her son was born brain-dead with amphetamines in his system. The judge's decision to throw out the case is perhaps less significant than the fact that criminal charges were brought against the mother in the first place.' Cases like this raise important ethical, legal, and medical questions about personal responsibility in an era of increasing knowledge concerning health risks, about the moral and legal liability of parents who ignore the advice of their doctors when their actions result in death or serious deformities for their newborns, and about the duties of doctors toward patients who ignore their advice. Ultimately, lawmakers must design policy which confronts questions about the kinds of protection to which the fetus is entitled, if any, and the means for reconciling the interests of mother and fetus when they clash. In the Roe v. Wade decision, the Court avoided direct confrontation with some of the most difficult issues surrounding fetal responsibility. It provided a time frame, specified by viability, which limits the extent of state interference with the maternal right to privacy. But the Court did not and could not address a host of related policy issues. For example, it did not specify exactly what constitutes compelling state interest in the rights of the fetus. It did not indicate the obligations the mother has, if any, to the fetus if she chooses not to abort.

Disabled American Indians: A Special Population Requiring Special Considerations

It is well known that the health status of American Indians is below national averages and has been for many years. Identified health difficulties include a pattern of social problems, poverty, and disease that is unparalleled among other ethnic and racial minorities in the United States. The disabled American Indian, however, faces additional disadvantages in the form of major barriers to care and rehabilitation services. Further, the incidence of several serious disabling conditions among some tribes is thought to be well above that reported for the United States population as a whole. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), bacterial meningitis, otitis media, diabetes, accidentsltrauma, alcoholldrug abuse, and mental and emotional disorders cause disabilities among Indians at significantly higher rates than among non-Indians. Major disabilities include seizure disorder, developmental delay, language and speech delay, mental retardation, pulmonary disorders, vision problems, hearing loss, trauma from accidents, diabetesrelated disabilities, and alcoholism. The severity of each problem, however, varies from one Indian group to another. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effect (FAE), disabling conditions which have been identified and categorized only since 1973, consist of a group of physical and developmental abnormalities present in infants, which are caused by maternal

Maternal Rights and Fetal Wrongs: The Case against the Criminalization of "Fetal Abuse"

Maternal Rights and Fetal Wrongs: The Case against the Criminalization of "Fetal Abuse"

Fetal Abuse and Neglect: An Emerging Controversy

Advances in fetal medicine have expanded opportunities for protection of fetal health and intrauterine management of an increasing number of fetal disorders. The legal rights and duties of parents to provide necessary medical treatment for the child may extend to the prenatal period. Resolution of the conflict between the rights of the fetus to be born healthy and the pregnant woman's right of privacy is difficult and controversial. It is suggested that intrusion into a woman's individual fundamental rights for the potential benefit of her fetus should be permissible only in narrowly defined circumstances.