The book also includes a short section on ethical issues in maternal-fetal medicine, which contains an insightful discussion of the philosophical framework of the fetus as patient. Given the broad range of ethical dilemmas facing fetal medicine, this well-written section is a valuable contribution that hopefully will be expanded in future editions. An important section on epidemiology, containing chapters on the prevention of neural tube defects and the adult consequences of fetal disease, adds to the comprehensive nature of the text. The book presents a wide range of topics on normative and abnormal fetal development in a scholarly and comprehensive fashion. There are some overlapping passages, but they tend to be complementary and supportive, rather than redundant.
Chapters tend to be short, concise, extremely focused, and well referenced.
The book contains 600 illustrations and numerous color plates. In summary, Fetal Medicine is one of at least two new texts in this emerging field of medicine. It is a well-written, balanced book, which includes both the relevant basic science and clinical perspectives. The text's major strength is its comprehensiveness. I would recommend Fetal Medicine to my obstetric, genetic, perinatal, and neonatal colleagues as an accessible resource for insights into the challenging issues faced by practitioners in this field.