{"title":"Ethics, obligations, and imperatives in neonatology.","authors":"Christy L Cummings","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152113","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152113"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144627006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ulrike Mietzsch, Janessa B Law, Basel Thayyil, Danny E Miller, Thomas R Wood, Niranjana Natarajan, Khorshid Mohammad
{"title":"Genetic and epigenetic contributors and mimickers of phenotypic hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).","authors":"Ulrike Mietzsch, Janessa B Law, Basel Thayyil, Danny E Miller, Thomas R Wood, Niranjana Natarajan, Khorshid Mohammad","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152112","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) remains one of the leading causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality despite advancement in care. Over 60 % of infants presenting with phenotypic HIE lack a clear identifiable acute sentinel event. Clinical genetic testing in neonates with suspected HIE has uncovered an increasing number of genetic conditions and epigenetic modifications that impair their ability to tolerate the stress of labor and delivery or exacerbate the severity of clinical symptoms following a hypoxic-ischemic insult. While most of those conditions are rare, many of the identified alterations involve common biological pathways and organ systems - particularly those affecting energy metabolism or the function of cells and organs of high energy demand such as brain, heart, and skeletal muscle - as well as genetic epilepsies. Here we provide an overview of the genetic makeup and epigenetic signatures associated with HIE and the insights they have provided into distinguishing genetic etiologies from true HIE. By outlining modern genetic testing modalities and their clinical applications, we provide a structured diagnostic approach for clinicians evaluating neonates with phenotypic HIE and highlight the clinical and therapeutic implications of early genetic diagnosis. This review underscores the critical importance of recognizing that HIE may not always represent a purely hypoxic-ischemic etiology, but rather a final common pathway influenced by underlying genetic predisposition and environmental factors that highlight the potential for precision medicine approaches to improve outcomes in this vulnerable population.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152112"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144554385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Parental mental health & well-being in the NICU: Addressing the surgeon general's advisory.","authors":"Kara Hansen, Tiffany Gladdis, Stephanie Kukora","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152111","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The 2023 U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents highlights the critical role parents play in family and societal health and underscores the urgent need to address the growing mental health challenges faced by parents. For parents with an infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the key stressors identified in the advisory - such as financial strain, lack of childcare, lack of paid or universal leave from employment, social isolation, and mental health stigma- are often compounded by the trauma, uncertainty, and emotional toll of hospitalization. The advisory calls for coordinated, systemic efforts to support parental mental health, which is critical in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where parental well-being directly impacts child outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152111"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144554386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emilie Thivierge, Thuy Mai Luu, Peter Rosenbaum, Paige Terrien Church, Rebecca Pearce, Annie Janvier
{"title":"Looking beyond diagnoses to functioning: using the F words and personalizing care in neonatology.","authors":"Emilie Thivierge, Thuy Mai Luu, Peter Rosenbaum, Paige Terrien Church, Rebecca Pearce, Annie Janvier","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152102","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152102","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extreme prematurity is associated with significant risk of mortality and morbidities. Neonatal follow-up assesses health outcomes of babies as they grow older to improve care and contribute to research and quality improvement initiatives. Recent investigations demonstrate that parents and clinicians/researchers disagree about what is defined as a \"severe outcome\". Families report they need balanced information about functioning rather than medical diagnoses. Many functional domains other than the presence/absence of impairment are not evaluated during neonatal follow-up. This article recommends how to shift communication with parents of preterm infants throughout the NICU hospitalization - from discussions that are medicalized and deficit-based to those that reflect the processes of growth and development. This includes understanding family-important outcomes and how to communicate with parents using the 'F-words' for child development based on the World Health Organization's integrated biopsychosocial framework for health: Functioning, Family, Fitness, Fun, Friends, and Future.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152102"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144333845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kaiulani S Shulman, Kristen Fishler Malone, Hadley Stevens Smith, Bimal P Chaudhari, Monica H Wojcik
{"title":"An end to genetic exceptionalism: reframing the ethics of genomic sequencing for rapid neonatal diagnosis.","authors":"Kaiulani S Shulman, Kristen Fishler Malone, Hadley Stevens Smith, Bimal P Chaudhari, Monica H Wojcik","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Exome or genome sequencing (ES/GS) is increasingly used as the first-line test for postnatal diagnosis of rare genetic conditions, especially in intensive care units (ICUs). Early concerns regarding the use of broad genetic testing centered on the potential for psychosocial harm, particularly related to unexpected or uncertain findings. As the usage of ES/GS has grown and evolved, the ethical concerns initially raised have not borne out in empirical measurement of patient and family experience. We therefore review the use of diagnostic genomic sequencing in the neonatal intensive care unit with comparison to other standard diagnostic tests that have not elicited similar ethical questioning. We frame this landscape within the concept of genetic contextualism rather than exceptionalism and suggest that this approach may lead to a more productive future for applied genomic medicine, especially for sick neonates and infants in the NICU.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152110"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144302765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethical challenges and justice concerns for infants and children with life-limiting conditions and significant disability, including trisomy 13 and 18.","authors":"Alaina K Pyle, Mark R Mercurio","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152101","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Some life-limiting conditions associated with significant neurodevelopmental impairment, such as trisomy 13/18, have historically been considered lethal, thus medical or surgical treatments would be inappropriate. Evolving literature has shown that early death is not universal, and though all who survive with trisomy 13/18 will have significant impairments, some experience a positive quality of life. The presence of bias impacts counseling as well as what interventions are offered and/or provided to families of a child with anticipated significant disability. Shared decision-making processes should include parents receiving all relevant information about comfort care as well as available, indicated, and ethically permissible medical/surgical interventions. Ethical frameworks can help clarify which options would be permissible to offer or withhold on an individualized basis. Clinicians are encouraged to be open to revisiting past and sometimes long-established practices regarding patients with disability. A willingness to change should not be perceived as an indictment of past practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152101"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144294924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
McKenna F Parnes, Luke Mosley, Heather H Burris, Elliott Mark Weiss
{"title":"Climate change and environmental degradation: bioethical considerations and impact for neonatal care.","authors":"McKenna F Parnes, Luke Mosley, Heather H Burris, Elliott Mark Weiss","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152099","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate change has severe consequences for neonatal health. Neonates are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their developing bodies and immature immune and thermoregulatory systems. Climate change increases the risk of severe weather events, including extreme heat and natural disasters, as well as pollution and chemical exposures. The physiologic fragility of neonates and dependence on a stable environment require healthcare systems and policymakers to ensure protections are in place to mitigate health risks and potential impacts that will have long-lasting effects on individual development and well-being. The current article details the impacts of climate change on neonatal health across the lifecycle as well as the disproportionate consequences for communities most vulnerable to climate change. We provide evidence as to why this is a bioethical issue and offer recommendations for policies to protect neonatal health and promote environmental and climate justice.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152099"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144294923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anne Sullivan, Jennifer Arnold, Sheria Wilson, Kaiulani Shulman, Fabiana Bacchini, Paige Church
{"title":"Disability, ableism, and decision-making at extreme prematurity.","authors":"Anne Sullivan, Jennifer Arnold, Sheria Wilson, Kaiulani Shulman, Fabiana Bacchini, Paige Church","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152098","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ableism plays a pervasive yet often unexamined role in decision-making at extreme prematurity. This review examines how ableist assumptions about quality of life, normalcy, and parental burden can shape clinical counseling and influence decisions regarding resuscitation and intensive care for extremely preterm infants. Drawing on literature from neonatology, disability studies, and bioethics, the article explores the historical and sociocultural roots of ableist thinking in medicine and its manifestations in prognostic framing, risk communication, and institutional norms. Strategies for recognizing and addressing ableism in clinical practice are reviewed, including approaches to anti-ableist communication, family-centered care, and medical education reform. The article argues that adopting an explicitly anti-ableist stance is essential for promoting ethical, inclusive, and genuinely shared decision-making in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and calls for greater interdisciplinary collaboration to support systemic change.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152098"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144275896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preserving medical ethics in the era of artificial intelligence: Challenges and opportunities in neonatology.","authors":"Tanima Arora, Habeebah Muhammad-Kamal, Kristyn Beam","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152100","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into neonatology offers improved patient care while raising ethical challenges across four principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy. AI enhances prediction and early detection capabilities, but introduces concerns including the \"black box\" nature of many algorithms, which compromises transparency and may propagate existing biases. Justice considerations arise from potential inequities in AI development and deployment. Autonomy is challenged when clinicians cannot fully explain algorithmic decision-making, affecting shared decision-making with families. These ethical tensions are particularly acute in neonatology, where decisions impact vulnerable patients who cannot advocate for themselves. Mitigating these challenges requires developing transparent AI systems, ensuring diverse training data, maintaining human oversight of clinical decisions, and conducting rigorous validation across diverse healthcare settings. Responsible implementation requires balancing technological benefits with ethical principles.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152100"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144235076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Injustice and inequality in the provision of perinatal palliative care.","authors":"Matthew Lin, Sophie Bertaud, Dominic Wilkinson","doi":"10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2025.152097","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Perinatal palliative care (PnPC) is a relatively new branch of pediatric palliative care (PPC), which focuses on providing holistic care in the antenatal, delivery, and neonatal settings. In this paper, we address previously unexplored justice-based ethical questions related to the provision of PnPC. We examine why some families who receive the diagnosis of a potentially life-limiting condition in their baby before or after birth receive PnPC support whilst others do not. We describe current inequities in the access to, and delivery of, PnPC. Drawing on philosophical theory (the Capabilities Approach) we argue that palliative care represents a valuable capability for babies with life limiting illness and their families. Health professionals should advocate for and promote access to this option for all families, regardless of whether it is ultimately taken up.</p>","PeriodicalId":21761,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in perinatology","volume":" ","pages":"152097"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144226559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}