Please join us for our next CBSSM seminar scheduled for October 1, 2012, at 3-4 pm, NCRC Building 16, Room 266C. William Meadow, MD, PhD, will present a talk entitled, “Mathematics of Morality in the NICU.”

Abstract: Most traditional discussions of neonatal ethics center on issues of beneficence, justice, autonomy, and best interests. My talk does not. Rather, I attempt to show how data impact decision-making in the NICU. I will discuss four separate, but related, issues – Money, Outcomes, Prediction, and Worth. I will demonstrate that there are no credible financial criticisms of NICU care, especially when compared to adult ICU care. I will discuss the paradox that although survival outcomes vary sharply with gestational age (GA), the outcomes for infants who actually survive do not vary much with GA. I will spend considerable time on the possibility of very accurate prediction of either death or neurodevelopmental impairment for infants – while they are on the ventilator in the NICU when ethical alternatives to continued NICU care (i.e., extubation and palliative care) are possible. And finally I will spend a bit of time discussing the odd but consistent finding that many people (physicians and non-physicians alike) appear to place less value on the life of a micro-preemie than they do on other medical patients with comparable, or even worse, prognoses. I will end with a discussion of the future of neonatal morality research, as I see it.

Dr. Meadow is a Professor of Pediatrics, Co-Section Chief of Neonatology, and Director of the Neonatology Fellowship Program at the University of Chicago. An expert in neonatology, Dr. Meadow's research focuses on medical ethics in the field of neonatal epidemiology. He has examined resource allocation, as well as issues of informed consent, in neonatal intensive care units.

Light refreshments will be provided. We hope to see you there!