Dissecting the Ethics of the Ethicist

Merry Christmas and much hope for a honest and healthy new year in 2013. As I mentioned in a previous blog there was an opinion piece in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology online version from November by Chervenak with which I took issue. Its titled, "Planned home birth: the professional responsibility response" and is intended to make the argument for health practitioners to use against those who desire or support out of hospital birthing. It would be all too easy for practitioners to read this, consider the source and trust it as gospel. Critical reading of this article, however, shows it to be flawed and biased and even on occasion purposely deceitful. It is deserving of a point by point review and rebuttal but to do so by prose I found too lengthy and confusing. I could not figure how to respond to the AJOG in a letter with an acceptable word count. So, the past few weeks I have been working on a power point presentation which has the ability to present Dr. Chervenak's positions and evidence based counterarguments in a meaningful and comprehensible manner. I intend to begin to offer lectures and gatherings so that this paper does not go unchallenged. Please spread the word to your local groups and let me know if you would like me to come and speak. Ideally, obstetricians uninformed or against home birthing would be a great audience but it would be an honor to present this debate to all interested parties. Warmly, Dr. F