Fetal Surgery : A Controversial Breakthrough

of rape or incest may not want to have the baby, as it would remind

Did you ever consider everything that has to go exactly right for a baby to be born with out any birth defects, prematurity, or low birth weight? The answer is a lot, and according to the March of Dimes more then 460,000 babies are born prematurely every year in the United States alone (March of Dimes website). Recently, this statistic hit closer to home when a close friend of mine gave birth to her first child. At five months she was informed that her baby would be born prematurely with a hole in its diaphragm, a birth defect that could mean life or death. When the time came to deliver, the doctors performed a caesarean section. With the help of supporting organizations and

The subject of fetus removal will dependably be begging to be proven wrong on whether it is ethically, lawfully, ormedically the correct thing to do. In the mid 70's the situation of Roe v. Wade left a mark on the world by overthrowing the Texas law that made premature birth unlawful not withstanding when it jeopardized the women.When the Supreme Court decided for Roe ladies could have a fetus removal amid their first trimester and it was viewed as moral in light of the fact that it was their own particular right. To guard thistopic I must take a gander at what it involves, first is the most imperative and that is the risk to themother. Another reason is the considered bringing an existence into the world that you aren't prepared toprovide

Over the years birthing methods have changed a great deal. When technology wasn’t so advanced there was only one method of giving birth, vaginally non-medicated. However, in today’s society there are now more than one method of giving birth. In fact, there are three methods: Non-medicated vaginal delivery, medicated vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery, also known as c-section. In the cesarean delivery there is not much to prepare for before the operation, except maybe the procedure of the operation. A few things that will be discussed are: the process of cesarean delivery, reasons for this birthing method and a few reasons for why this birthing method is used. Also a question that many women have is whether or not they can vaginally

According to the World Health Organisation [WHO] (2014) pre-term babies are at increased risk of illness, disability and death. It also states that globally 15 million babies are born pre-term and the figures are rising. In England and Wales during 2012 7.3% of live births were pre-term under 37 weeks nearly 85% of all babies born prematurely will have a very low birth weight (Office for National Statistics, 2012). Pre-term birth is associated with respiratory complications and lung disease, long-tern neurological damage and problems with bowel function (Henderson & Macdonald, 2011). Neonatal services provide care to babies who are born prematurely or are ill and require specialist care. It is seen that sixty per cent of infant deaths occur in the neonatal period (DH,

According to Suter, gathering information and being informed about the health of your child before the child is born is a very responsible decision. Families can benefit from this technology and make decisions in light or whether or not to continue the pregnancy depending on the values that they may have. (925-27). Most parents who choose this approach are making these wise decisions based off of their current circumstances. Using whatever techniques are available to help prevent certain genetic diseases will protect children from suffering debilitating diseases and deformities and reduce the financial and emotional strain on the parents. If we want the best for our children, why shouldn’t we use the

The single mother who’s delivery necessitated a surgical incision in the mother’s abdomen and uterus was done to prevent any harm to the baby and mother’s health and was undergone without any complications.

“There is no greater disability in society than the inability to see a person as more.” Robert M. Hensel says that, to look at a person with a disability and think nothing more of them is a disability for us. Birth defects are abnormalities mostly found in infants. There are many issues that come along with having a birth defect but some can be prevented. Analyzing all that is known in accordance to birth defects can help us look for more solutions in minimizing birth defect rates. For this reason education for pregnant women regarding birth defects needs to be more prevalent in the medical community.

We should not use fetal tissue to treat disease simply because of the huge risk being taken. Abortions are already controversial enough, without adding the possibility of women conceiving and aborting just to donate fetal tissue. With medical science moving on at such a fast pace, fetal tissue research is already being taken over by less controversial methods, such as stem cell research. It is time to let this method go. The only way for fetal tissue research to continue without negative impacts is to have strong public policy, however it is still very hard to regulate and control the many decisions made by doctors and researchers alike. As the Panel of Research Ethics wrote, ethical deliberation and societal values are always evolving, so we need to be careful that they are not evolving into the lack of respect we often see regarding fetuses. As with the ‘baby m’ case and with surrogacy, selling babies, or baby parts (as with fetal tissue research), is potentially degrading to women. With the ‘baby m’ case, the woman had become a commodity, and in fetal tissue research, the fetus becomes the commodity in an illegal reproductive industry. In conclusion, I believe that fetal tissue should not be used to treat disease because of the potential lack of respect towards pregnant women and the aborted fetus, as well as the

Let’s talk about the evolution of the surgical approach. The serious harm to the pregnant women would have been a showstopper for the enterprise had doctors had maternal deaths year after year at centers, innovators wouldn’t be where they are now. There was a lot of incentive to decrease risk to women, and that was successful largely because of a gradual trend towards doing less and less invasive procedures. Today what fetal surgeons do is that they use 2-3 mm tools, such as scopes or lasers, that go through the maternal abdomen to either cut amniotic bands, insert a balloon in the trachea, or even use nanomedicine to treat certain diseases (Bawa, p.881). With these new and improved surgical techniques, fetal surgeons use less general anesthesia on their patients, less aggressive tocolysis, shorter hospital stay, no requirement for cesarean delivery, and lower rates of preterm births. Little by little, preterm births have slowly decreased as techniques have improved. The main complication, to this day, is premature rupture of the membrane. In one of the few randomized trails, fetal surgeons put a balloon in a trachea in fetus’ with congenital diaphragmatic hernia to try to get fluid to accumulate and allow the lungs to grow. The majority of the babies in the intervention group had preterm delivery and, of course, in the conventional management group that wasn’t the case (Velpeau, 1997). This isn’t the only trial made for fetus’. There have been clinical trials were fetal surgeons have used fetal tissue transplantation to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease. One huge risk with this is placebos in drug trials are viewed as therapeutic intervention. Therapeutic procedures-whether they it be a drug or surgery- are administered with therapeutic warrant and with the hope of providing direct benefit to the research subject. Non-therapeutic procedures-include blood tests

Prenatal surgery included opening the uterus, doing the myelomeningocele repair surgery, and the mother being put into the hospital in a non-intensive care unit around 11.9 days (Werner, E. F., et al, 161). Surgery done after birth was thought to involve the surgery to correct the birth defect and a 15 day hospitalization with at least half of those days being in intensive care. The authors of this study said, “We estimated that prenatal myelomeningocele repair is a dominant strategy, both cost saving and quality improving, when compared to postnatal repair” (162). The study approximated that surgery done to the fetus before birth would save around $2,066,778 for every 100 surgeries, compared to surgery done after birth.

Elective caesarean birth is defined as caesarean birth upon maternal request without medical or obstetric indication that it is necessary (Lowdermilk, Perry, Cashion, & Alden, 2012). Caesarean birth should not be an option on maternal request as there are many potential risks and implications for both the mother and her baby associated with this procedure. Easter (2015) states “caesarean sections on maternal request can do more harm than good and should not be available ‘on demand’” (p.359). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the overall issue of elective caesarean sections using research and evidence from literature. This paper will thoroughly discuss reasons why pregnant women

The cesarean section in the United States has become common practice. This is quite different from when the first cesarean section was performed. They have been documented to occur in ancient times; an example is when Apollo is said to have cut Asclepius from his mother’s womb. The name of the procedure is sometimes thought to come from the birth of Julius Caesar when he was cut from his mother Aurelia’s stomach. Now some believe this must not actually be true since stories say that she was alive to hear of her son’s invasion of Britain. In the days of Caesar, women did not survive the procedure. Julius Caesar decreed that all women who were dead or dying have the procedure to remove the baby as to increase the population, so some believe this might be the reasoning for the name. (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1998.) In today’s society, a cesarean section can be a lifesaving procedure for women, babies, or both.

With the cesarean section it is typical to use regional anesthesia but in an emergency it may be necessary to use general anesthesia which means the mother won’t be able to see, feel, or hear. This method has become increasingly common over the last decade increasing by seven-fold with a rate of thirty-two percent in 2014 (Hamilton, B.E., Martin, J.A., Osterman, M.J.K., & Curtin, S.C., 2015). Typically, the cesarean section is used when there is a complication with the baby that would make vaginal delivery risky. This method can be advantageous because if there is a known complication the cesarean section can be planned ahead of time in order to avoid serious danger for both mother and child. One of the most common complications resulting in a cesarean section is stalled labor when the labor stops progressing because the cervix isn’t opening or the baby’s head is too big. When the baby isn’t getting enough oxygen or there is an issue with the umbilical cord the cesarean section can again be the result. Another type of complication is when the baby is in an abnormal position that makes vaginal delivery dangerous. The baby may be in a breech position where the feet or buttocks is positioned to go first through the birthing canal instead of the desired head first. Another way is the transverse position where the baby is turned shoulder or side first. The placenta can also cause issues for mother

Pregnancy ends with delivery which can be either vaginal delivery/ assisted vaginal delivery in the form of forceps/ ventouse or a cesearen section. Each type of delivery has its own pros and cons ie risks and benefits. Sometimes for the sake of mother or the baby or because of certain medical conditions you need go for caesarean delivery. These days the technique is such that it is very safe in good hands. Nevertheless since it’s a major operation in which we are opening the abdomen , some complications may arise.