The Fetus as a Patient: A Contested Concept and its Normative Implications

Due to new developments in prenatal testing and therapy the fetus is increasingly visible, examinable and treatable in prenatal care. Accordingly, physicians tend to perceive the fetus as a patient and understand themselves as having certain professional duties towards it. However, it is far from clear what it means to speak of a patient in this connection.

This volume explores the usefulness and limitations of the concept of ‘fetal patient’ against the background of the recent seminal developments in prenatal or fetal medicine. It does so from an interdisciplinary and international perspective. Featuring internationally recognized experts in the field, the book discusses the normative implications of the concept of ‘fetal patient’ from a philosophical-theoretical as well as from a legal perspective. This includes its implications for the autonomy of the pregnant woman as well as its consequences for physician-patient-interactions in prenatal medicine.

Dagmar Schmitz is Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Theory at the Institute for History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and a member of the German Commission on Genetic Testing (GEKO). In her research, she is especially interested in ethical aspects of physician-patient-interactions and the beginning of life.

Angus Clarke is Clinical Professor at the Institute of Cancer and Genetics, Cardiff University, UK. He works as a clinical geneticist and teaches students of medicine and of genetic counselling. He undertakes research on the social and ethical aspects of human genetics and contributes to policy discussions on genetic services within UK and Europe.

Wybo Dondorp is Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Research Schools CAPHRI and GROW, at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. His research interests include the ethics of reproductive medicine, genomics, and population screening. He is a member of the Health Council of the Netherlands and past coordinator of the Special Interest Group on Ethics of the International Society of Prenatal Diagnosis and Fetal Therapy (ISPD).