Fetal Personhood and Viability

The reason I have always considered the fetus a person – a significantly dependent person, but a person nonetheless -, is that I have never been able to find a non-arbitrary point at which the fetus could possibly acquire personhood. If birth is said to be the criterion, preemies acquire personhood at the same developmental [...]

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Who Decides What “Quality of Life” Means?

Over the last few days, I’ve come across a few blog posts on the subject of quality of life, as it relates to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Note here, that my opinion about assisted suicide and euthanasia is not based on some kind of mantra that says that everyone has an obligation to live until [...]

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Fear and Adjustment on the Fence of Independence

Stacy of The Preemie Experiment raised an important topic when discussing her fear that her daughter wouldn’t live independently. I see this fear and uncertainty communicated on the PREEMIE-CHILD list all the time. Some people on this list have children with severe disabilities, like quadiplegic cerebral palsy or severe mental retardation, and these parents can [...]

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Girl’s Family Sue over Injuries in Womb

So, now foetuses have gained the human right to claim damages cause of injury. I think I could do a better lawsuit, having been born prematurely cause my mother’s gynaecologist was doing a nonsense experiment on low-dose aspirin in the prevention of premature labour, while she was not advised to take effective measures to prevent [...]

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Preemie Surviving after 22 Weeks

A preemie born at 22 weeks survived. So what do I think? This particular case – so sensational that it even made it to the Dutch media -, involves several issues relating to prematurity and the pro-life cause in general. Firstly, I see some pro-lifers, like Wesley J. Smith referring to this fact in relation [...]

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Preemie Outcomes, Ethics and My Own Situation Once Again

I found myself in the middle of another preemie outcomes / ethics discussion again. Maybe I should’ve withdrawn as Helen (the parent of a preemie with severe disabilities, who thinks preemies shouldn’t be kept alive) was trying to spark negativity, as Sarah did, but I just can’t. I wasn’t trying to discredit her; I was [...]

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Preemie Ethics and Feelings about My Own Situation

There’s been discussion on various E-mail lists about some UK doctors who consider preemies born before 25 weeks gestation to be “bed-blockers” because they’re much more expensive economically than older preemies, whose care might be compromised. In all of these discussions, I’ve been highlighting the errors in the “babies born before 25 weeks gestation are [...]

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Thoughts on NICU Outcomes and the Extent of My Special Needs

I was just reading the Proactive Parents website, the homepage of two couples who both gave birth to a premature baby who now has considerable special needs. I was at first sort of angered by the undertone in the articles: even though the parents are aiming at getting services for their children which the NZ [...]

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Former Preemies on Parent Support Lists

After having had my second request for membership – my first was in early 2004 and it was ignored – to the PREEMIE-CHILD list approved and receiving an E-mail from the moderator of a Dutch preemie list questioning my interest in it, I wonder why I actually want to join these lists and why some [...]

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Thoughts on Preemie Ethics and What My Own Ootcome Would Be Considered

I’ve done a lot of reading on NICU ethics lately. As you might know, in the Netherlands preemies born before 25 weeks gestation are generally not resuscitated, cause neonatologists think that the risk of death or survival with severe handicaps is too great. The Rotterdam neonatologist in the article I mentioned on October 2, 2004 [...]

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