Ethical Issues With The NICU

The neonatal intensive care unit, or the NICU, is a place where hope, fear, precise care, and new technology are at its peak. Babies who are underweight, premature, have health problems, or have had a difficult birth, are sent to the NICU for around-the-clock care. It is everyone’s hope that the babies will make it out of the NICU alive and healthy, and for the most part, babies will. Now, a baby born weighing 800 to 1000 grams at 26 weeks has around a 90% survival rate at the NICU, according to a University of Washington Data Base (Beckstrom, Woodrum, 2018).

But despite these impressive odds of survival, there’s an underlying question of ethics and controversy behind the practices this facility implements. Imagine a newborn baby being whisked away to the NICU, being performed on by a bunch of doctors, with all sorts of technology linking up to his little body. After many grueling hours of being poked and prodded by machines, it works and he makes it out alive…but not without first gaining a new health problem.

A long term UW study of NICU infants states that 70% of NICU babies end up with a mild to moderate disability (Beckstrom, Woodrum, 2018). While the baby's time in the NICU means that he ended up alive, it also means that he may have ended up with cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, learning disabilities, and other impairments that could cost him his life. 

Ultimately, the decision lands on the legal guardians. Should they allow their newborn child into the NICU? Of course, at the moment, the answer is always yes. Why wouldn’t it be? But what a lot of new parents don’t realize is that their baby is going through a lot of treatment only newly created. Treatment that they might not be okay with if they did not know the extent of its sensitivity. Treatments that may elicit up with side effects. 

Whatever it may be, there is a lot of haziness around the ethics of NICU. Because doctors and parents are dealing with a sensitive new life, sometimes the implications and regulations get blurred. However, it is crucial that regardless of the situation, the details of the procedures, side effects, and any other complications that may arise must be clearly stated and referred to throughout the baby’s time in the NICU.

Citations

Neonatal ICU Issues | UW Department of Bioethics & Humanities. (n.d.). Depts.washington.edu. https://depts.washington.edu/bhdept/ethics-medicine/bioethics-topics/detail/71