Ethics round table: choice and autonomy in obstetrics
Decisions about how and where they deliver their baby are extremely important to pregnant women. There are very strong ethical norms that women's autonomy should be respected, and that plans around birth should be personalised. However, there appear to be profound challenges in practice to respecting women's choices in pregnancy and labour. Choices carry risks and consequences-to the woman and her child; also potentially to her caregivers and to other women.What does it mean for women's autonomy to be respected in obstetrics? How should health professionals respond to refusals of treatment or requests for care outside normal guidelines? What are the ethical limits to autonomy? In this clinical ethics round table, service users, midwives, obstetricians, philosophers and ethicists respond to two hypothetical cases drawn from real-life scenarios.
Authors
- Lawrence Impey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4462-112X)
- Anna‐Marie Madeley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0200-8834)
- Rebecca C. H. Brown (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8023-1092)
- Elselijn Kingma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9787-3198)
- Brenda Kelly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6828-5661)
- Dominic Wilkinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-8633)
- Helen Lynne Turnham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1011-2885)
- Claire Litchfield
- Shahid Ahmad Teli
Institutions
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- King's College London (GB)
- John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
- University of Northampton (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute (AU)
- Monash University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Medical Ethics
- Published
- 2024-11-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2024-110503
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.22
Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Arts and Humanities Research Council