Tag Archives: Ethics

More randomized trials of magic in newborn infants

Posted on 26 April 2022 by Keith Barrington

The scientific basis of neonatology is vitally important to me, the enormous advances that we have made have all been founded on basic and clinical science. So I can get quite agitated when I see articles reporting trials of interventions … Continue reading →

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Does knowing the genetic abnormality change management? And should it?

Posted on 22 April 2022 by Keith Barrington

Just after I pressed “post” for a recent addition to the blog, I saw this appear. (Callahan KP, et al. Influence of Genetic Information on Neonatologists’ Decisions: A Psychological Experiment. Pediatrics. 2022;149). It illustrates some major problems in how neonatologists … Continue reading →

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Should every baby have their Genome sequenced?

Posted on 19 April 2022 by Keith Barrington

Annie Janvier, John Lantos and I have just published an article about Next Generation Sequencing (Janvier A, et al. Next generation sequencing in neonatology: what does it mean for the next generation? Hum Genet. 2022), which is a common way … Continue reading →

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What do we tell families at 22 weeks?

Posted on 28 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

When we counsel families about the potential outcomes for infants born profoundly preterm, I think we would all agree that we should be honest, transparent and truthful. Which includes, I would suggest, truthfulness about our own local results, as well … Continue reading →

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Active intensive care at 22 weeks gestation

Posted on 27 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

Even the New England Journal are getting in on the act (Lee CD, et al. Neonatal Resuscitation in 22-Week Pregnancies. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(4):391-3), I guess that someone talked to the editors about the practice variation in resuscitation of … Continue reading →

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Survival and outcomes for the extremely preterm. The NICHD network results continue to improve: Can we do even better?

Posted on 20 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

A new publication from the NRN describes short term outcomes and care practices of babies from 22 to 28 weeks gestation born in recent years (2013 to 2018) and for those born in 2013-2016 results of evaluations of those followed … Continue reading →

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Ethically acceptable pain research

Posted on 12 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

Just imagine for a moment that you are the parent of Jo, who is 4 years old, Jo has a sudden onset of breathlessness and the investigations in the Emergency Room show a spontaneous pneumothorax, that needs a drain. You … Continue reading →

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Unethical pain research in the newborn. A list of shame.

Posted on 11 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

Unethical pain studies are still being published, in journals which include several from mainstream publishing houses. In these studies published recently and appearing on-line in recent weeks, newborn infants were assigned by the researchers to experience pain. The reviewers of … Continue reading →

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How do we make decisions for the most immature babies, with their families?

Posted on 10 January 2022 by Keith Barrington

Although babies under 25 weeks account for a tiny proportion of births, and a small proportion of NICU admissions, the importance of the question asked in the title can be seen by the ongoing number of publications, below are just … Continue reading →

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How often does Whole Genome Sequencing really help the baby? Or their family?

Posted on 21 October 2021 by Keith Barrington

It is a long time since I have written anything on this blog about the above issue, I have an article in submission to the real scientific literature with some illustrious co-authors, but I was prompted to write this blog … Continue reading →

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