An ethically justified practical approach to offering, recommending, performing, and referring for induced abortion and feticide
Received 7 November 2008; received in revised form 22 April 2009; accepted 28 May 2009. published online 18 September 2009.
We provide comprehensive, practical guidance for physicians on when to offer, recommend, perform, and refer patients for induced abortion and feticide. We precisely define terminology and articulate an ethical framework based on respecting the autonomy of the pregnant woman, the fetus as a patient, and the individual conscience of the physician. We elucidate autonomy-based and beneficence-based obligations and distinguish professional conscience from individual conscience. The obstetrician's role should be based primarily on professional conscience, which is shaped by autonomy-based and beneficence-based obligations of the obstetrician to the pregnant and fetal patients, with important but limited constraints originating in individual conscience.
aDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY
bCenter for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Reprints not available from the authors.
Cite this article as: Chervenak FA and McCullough LB. An ethically justified practical approach to offering, recommending, performing, and referring for induced abortion and feticide. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2009;201:560.e1-6.