Synopsis:

This presentation will consider problems encountered when parents and staff disagree on how much control parents should have in medical management, and when they disagree on what is best for a sick child. Relevant rights and obligations of all involved will be discussed, and an ethical decision-making framework that provides a practical approach will be presented.  Specific examples to be considered include extreme prematurity, trisomy 13 and 18, and the continuation of life-sustaining measures in the setting of poor prognosis.

Speaker:

Dr. Mark Mercurio is Chief of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Director of the Ethics Program at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. He is also Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics at Yale School of Medicine, and a member of the medical faculty for the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University, an M.D. from Columbia University, and a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Brown University.   Pediatrics Residency and Neonatology Fellowship were completed at Yale. He has for many years been active in neonatology and medical ethics education for residents, fellows, nurses, attending physicians, PA students, medical students and others. He was an original co-editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics Resident Curriculum in Bioethics, and is the Chair-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Bioethics. He is on the editorial boards for the 6 volume text Bioethics (formerly the Encyclopedia of Bioethics) and the journal Pediatric Ethiscope, Dr. Mercurio is widely published, and has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally on medical ethics, particularly in pediatrics. He and his wife Anna live in Branford, Connecticut, and have three grown children.