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Premature Babies Research Paper

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Are Studies of Premature Babies and Child Mortality Ethical?

In today's society, biomedical health issues have been rising, and due to both the media and very opinionated people being involved, these issues have brought much controversy to the medical world. Child mortality and premature birth is just one out of many of the controversial health topics out there, however with a countless number of children who are affected by abuse and parental negligence, it can be argued as one of the most important controversial topics. With scientists and doctors performing many studies on premature children, it is crucial that both parties are aware of what is going on and that tests are not performed without consent. While premature birth can be …show more content…

The studies conducted by the central for disease control, (CDC), not only show that infant mortality is more prevalent in teen mothers and of those who use drugs, but also in many instances where white, college educated parents’ children would have normal birth outcomes as opposed to those who did not attend. While “infant mortality is largely preventable,” one of the main reasons it occurs is because of families not having insurance to cover health visits and “without health insurance, many pregnant women can’t receive early and regular medical attention throughout the pregnancy” (Cooper 2). Although child mortality is typically known for occurring during their infant stage of life, abusive situations often caused by abusive parents or guardians can also put the children at a large risk of death. According to Richard Wexler, the Executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, “multiple studies have found alarming rates of abuse in foster homes and even more abuse in group homes and …show more content…

Although the scientists often believe that conducting studies on newborns is just helping them get data, in certain cases such as the study of “oxygen levels] in incubators [...] endangering babies,” the study affected many infants lives, often not for the better (Millenson 1). Most people in today’s society believe that if students are not properly educated on the ‘causes and effects’ of pregnancy in general, let alone teen pregnancy, they will get pregnant at a young age and often times young pregnancies can be the cause of children born prematurely or with extreme disorders that can possibly go on to harm them later in life. While there are certain doctors that people without health insurance can go to, to get medical help, “many pregnant women [without health insurance] cannot receive early and medical attention throughout [their] pregnancy, which is vital to a healthy birth… ,”which can also be a cause of infant or even child mortality due to the lack of a job that provides the proper health care opportunities you need to have to properly raise a family (Cooper 2). Although most people would agree with the fact that studies involving premature babies and cases of child mortality are unethical when reading different results and due to the background and way the reader was raised in, they will either support the

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