The Birth of Ethics: Phenomenological Reflections on Life's Beginnings

by Michael van Manen

Overview

From the time of conception, through the gestation of pregnancy, to the birth of a newborn child exists an extraordinary, emergent ethics. How does this ethics come into being when a child is conceived? How does the appearance of ethics in pregnancy differ from its emergence after birth? How does the original meaning of ethics relate to modern morality in decision making?

In this book, Michael van Manen explores these ethical moral complexities and conceptualizations of life’s beginnings. He delves into perennial and contemporary aspects of conception, pregnancy, and birth to present ethics as a fundamental phenomenon in the experiential encounter between parent and child. Even in the context of neonatal-perinatal medicine, where all manner of medical technologies and illnesses may potentially complicate the developing relation of parent and child, ethics is always already present yet also enigmatic in its origin. And yet, to approach ethical moral questions, we need to understand the inception of ethics.

The Birth of Ethics: Phenomenological Reflections on Life’s Beginnings is an essential text not only for health professionals and researchers but also for parents, family members, and others who care and take responsibility for newborns in need of medical care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367627423
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/26/2020
Series:	Phenomenology of Practice
Pages:	138
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael van Manen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and Endowed Chair of Health Ethics and Director of the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre at the University of Alberta, Canada. He has a clinical practice as a physician in neonatal-perinatal medicine with the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Section I Before a Child is Born 13

Conceiving Ethics 15

Pregnant with Child 21

Ultrasound Imaging and Virtual Presence 27

Nascent Expectations and Hope 33

Meaningful Outcomes 39

Section II In the Cradle of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit 45

Newborn Encounters 47

Technics of Touch 53

Skin-to-Skin Togetherness 59

Imaging the Child 63

Attachment and Responsibility 67

Section III Ethics and Decisions 71

Situating Decisions 73

Decisions Without Choices 77

Looking for Ways Out of Decisions 82

Thinking and Feeling Through Decisions 87

Decisions and Indecisions 91

Falling into Decisions 96

Conclusion and Beginnings 99

Ethical Moral Perspectives 108

References 111

Index 127