Uncertainty in medical innovation : experienced pioneers in neonatal care Upplaga 2008

Medical innovations not only create new treatment opportunities, but also new problems and dilemmas for medical practitioners and patients. Uncertainty in Medical Innovation is a qualitative analysis of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that explores the medical and ethical complexities and uncertainties that new technology has created across the medical arena. As a site where hi-tech medicine and exceptionally vulnerable humans come into direct contact, a study of the NICU can reveal how society responds to health innovations for medical interventions, and explore how decision-making is carried out on a day-to-day basis. The book analyses what actually occurs at the interface between medical diagnosis and prognosis, actors and technology and argues that moral boundaries and the ethics of health care are being reshaped by technological advances.