Main description:

Progress in biomedical science has called for an international discussion of the medical, ethical, and legal problems that confront physicians, medical researchers, infertile couples, pregnant women, and parents of premature or disabled infants. In addition, the unprecedented technological developments in obstetrical, perinatal, and neonatal medicine in recent years have indicated a need for an international forum for interdisciplinary dialogue regarding the definition of early human life, the neurological development of early human life, the value of early human life, the obligations for its protection and prolongation, and the limits to these obligations.

Contents:

Preface. The Beginning of Full Moral Standing; R.M. Veatch. Legal Aspects of the Beginning of Human Life; B.M. Dickens. Development of the Human Brain: The Emergence of the Neural Substrate for Pain Perception and Conscious Experience; R.O. Kuljis. The Moral Significance of Brain-Life Criteria; H.-M. Sass. Assisted Reproductive Technologies of the 1980 and 1990s: The State of the Art and a Look at the Future; R.H. Asch. Human Reproductive Technology: Why All the Moral Fuss? H.T. Engelhardt Jr. Gestational Surrogacy and the Health Care Provider: Put Part of the IVF Genie Back into the Bottle; K.H. Rothenberg. The Beginning of Human Life: Contraceptive Implications; L. Mastroianni. Abortion: A Public Health Perspective; A. Rosenfield. Abortion and Contraception: The Moral Significance of Fertilization; H. Kuhse, P. Singer. Contraception and Abortion, Legal Distinctions and Dynamics; R.J. Cook. The Use of Human Fetal Tissue for Research and Therapy; K.J. Ryan. Restriction and Suppression of Fetal and Pre-Embryo Research, 1974-1990; J.C. Fletcher. Two problems in Embryo Research; J.A. Robertson. Fetal Tissue Transplantation and Women; M.B. Mahowald. Fetal Tissue Transplantation: An Institutional Review Board Perspective; S.R. Johnson. Primary Care Fetal Medicine; C.P. Weiner. Court-ordered Cesarean Delivery; F.A. Chervenak, L.B. McCullough. Coercion for Fetal Therapy? M.I. Evans, M.P. Johnson, N.B. Isada, W. Holzgreve. Pregnant Drug Addicts; B. Steinbock. The Mother and Fetus Union: What God has Put Together, Let no Law put Asunder? L.J. Nelson. Women's Rights versus the Protection of Fetuses; M.A. Warren. When Care cannot Cure: Medical Problems in Seriously Ill Babies; N. Campbell. Transplantation and the Anencephalic Newborn; R.D. Truog. Life-and-Death Decisions in the Midst of Uncertainty; R.R. Weir. When is Medical Treatment Futile? L.M. Kopelman. Treatment Decisions for Premature and Disabled Newborns: Hard Cases make Bad Law; E.M. Schmidt. Index.