of at-risk babies, infants born too early or with major medical and developmental problems that can threaten and impair their health for life.
The book is based on extensive interviews with parents and medical and nursing staff members. It explores ethical principles that can guide deliberations, examines the dilemmas that at-risk babies raise, considers the responses of those who care for and about these babies, and proposes strategies for more effective and balanced decision-making in the uncertain world of neonatal intensive care.
_______________________________________________________________|Reviews
"Baby at Risk ... is a brilliant treatment of the conflicted emotions that come into play when a fragile infant comes into the world. I am in great admiration of the way Guyer has presented this controversial and ambiguous topic. Surely, it is the best work of its kind."
—Richard Selzer, M.D., surgeon, writer, professor,
retired Yale University
"Ruth Levy Guyer has written a beautiful, moving, passionate account of the agonies and the joys of families that have included infants with serious, often fatal, medical problems. Just after every couple contemplating an addition is assured of how unlikely such a tragedy will be, they should read this book and begin calmly thinking about the experiences of the sometimes heroic and often desperate families who have been cursed and blessed with the births Guyer describes so vividly and compassionately. The book has to find its way to the doctors and nurses who advise these families and care for these infants. Guyer shows us how much can be done to prepare for the unlikely event of such a birth. Obstetricians and their patients simply have to confront these issues. Some professional caregivers won’t like what they read. Some will be offended. The pregnant women and their partners whose caregivers resist Guyer’s advice need to turn elsewhere to the compassionate, enlightened caregivers we learn about."
—Robert M. Veatch, PhD, Professor of Medical Ethics and former Director, The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
"Baby at Risk is a narrative of the perils and promises of neonatal intensive care. ... The thesis is that with a more nuanced appreciation of the miracles and the complications, parents and physicians would make better collaborative decisions for premature infants and other children born with serious health problems ... Baby at Risk will prove to be an emotional roller coaster for parents, prospective parents, and ... clinicians. It causes one to reflect on how to regain control over technology in the short run and how to promote patients’ well-being in the long run."
—Lainie Friedman Ross, MD, PhD, Journal of the American
Medical Association
"Medical miracles make the news. The everyday failures of medicine do not. We owe a debt to Ruth Levy Guyer, a courageous bioethicist, for sharing the true stories of medicine’s smallest patients and their families."
—Barbara Katz Rothman, PhD, Professor of Sociology, City University of New York
"How these children affect both their families and society is the subject of Guyer’s Baby at Risk. ...There is much to be learned from the care provided to these children, the outcomes of their births, and popular media’s treatment of them. Baby at Risk should stimulate a discussion about difficult topics regarding a vulnerable portion of our population. ... Achieving a balance between risks and benefits, overtreatment and undertreatment, and reasonable hopes versus “miracles” will continue to be important as more and more children are born “at risk."
—Scott A. Lorch, MD, Science
"… Guyer asks: Now that we have this innovative field of medicine, should we be using it with more consideration? ... [She] gets up close and personal ... showing pictures ... interviewing parents ... and [has] a feel for the heart-felt dilemmas experienced by parents, nurses, and physicians."
—Anita Catlin, DNSc, FNP, FAAN, Advances in Neonatal Care
"Never before have I seen such an eloquent portrayal of the complex emotional terrain felt by families caring for such children.. . . . Guyer has written a wonderful book."
—Jay Baruch, MD, Brown University
"Baby At Risk is right on target: balanced and true-to-life, touching equally on the limits, victories, and questions of a moneymaking branch of medicine. And it captures as few works have––and few in the field will still even admit––that neonatology remains rife with tunnel vision and experimentation. Every NICU parent and professional should read it."
—Jeff Stimpson, author of Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie
"Ruth Levy Guyer’s illuminating and compelling account of neonatal medicine interweaves the stories of infants, parents, and clinicians and shows how neonatal medicine wields a double-edged sword with the power to heal, but where prognosis may be uncertain and survival may come at a dear cost in many ways."
—Arthur R. Derse, MD, JD, Center for the Study of Bioethics, Medical College of Wisconsin
"Guyer has written a bleak, brave and enigmatic appreciation of children with lifelong health problems and of the parents who care for these chronically ill children.... Bioethicists who would comment on cases from this world have an obligation to spend some time there. This book––with all its rage, wonder and contradiction––is an excellent place to start."
—John D. Lantos, MD, The American Journal of Bioethics