This allows the family and health care team to create a plan of care to help the baby through the crisis of early delivery to eventual discharge home. Some babies are born with multiple problems, and the transition from birth to discharge is seen as difficult at best. Who decides the course for these babies, and what ethical issues are involved in the decisions. Many individual and societal values are involved in such decisions, and are never easy. I'd like to address only one of the issues involved in treating seriously ill infants, and that is the issue of pain management.
All babies feel pain.
Aggressive treatment and life sustaining measures, though possible, can also cause great pain and suffering. Intubation, blood draws, heel sticks, venipuncture, lumbar punctures, PDA repair, chest tube placement, and chest physiotherapy are all necessary procedures in the intensive care unit. Values and personal beliefs influence every one's attitude about this issue. Ethics is the study of the process of determining the most morally desirable course of action in view of conflicting value choices. Several principals are involved in bioethical decisions, four of which are the principals of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice .