In ancient Rome parents would consult the priestess Carmentis shortly after birth to obtain prophecies of the future of their newborn infant. Today, parents and doctors of critically ill children consult a different oracle. Neuroimaging provides a vision of the child's future, particularly of the nature and severity of any disability. Based on the results of brain scans and other tests doctors and parents face heart-breaking decisions about whether or not to continue intensive treatment or to allow the child to die.
Paediatrician and ethicist Dominic Wilkinson looks at the profound and contentious ethical issues facing those who work in intensive care caring for critically ill children and infants. When should infants or children be allowed to die? How accurate are predictions of future quality of life? How much say should parents have in these decisions? How should they deal with uncertainty about the future? He combines philosophy, medicine and science to shed light on current and future dilemmas.
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List of Figures and Tables |
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viii | |
| Prologue 1 The Temple of Carmentis 30 AD |
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1 | (4) |
| Prologue 2 The Carmentis Machine 2030 AD |
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5 | (6) |
| Introduction: Neuroethics and Intensive Care |
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11 | (10) |
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Part I Death and Grief in the Ancient World |
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21 | (138) |
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1 Destiny, Disability, and Death |
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23 | (23) |
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45 | (1) |
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2 Best Interests and the Carmentis Machine |
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46 | (36) |
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82 | (26) |
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Exposure and Infanticide in Ancient Rome |
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105 | (3) |
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108 | (51) |
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Part II Predictions and Disability in Rome |
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159 | (150) |
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5 Sources of Uncertainty---Prognostic Research |
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162 | (40) |
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202 | (34) |
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7 Interests and Uncertainty |
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236 | (25) |
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8 The Threshold Framework |
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261 | (48) |
| Index |
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309 | |
Dominic Wilkinson is Associate Professor of Neonatal Medicine and Bioethics at the University of Adelaide, and a senior research associate of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He has worked as a doctor in neonatal, paediatric and adult intensive care, and is currently consultant neonatologist at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide. He has a DPhil in medical ethics from the University of Oxford, and has written a large number of academic articles relating to ethical issues in intensive care.
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