The Lazarus Case: Life-and-Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care.

Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001; .

The last decade witnessed a number of high-profile medical malpractice cases that have focused the public's attention on the difficult and private decisions families and physicians must make on a daily basis regarding premature babies. In this book, Dr. Lantos, a University of Chicago pediatrician and medical ethicist, explores every facet of such medical decisions--philosophical, ethical, medical, technological, economic, legal, and political. He uses a fictional malpractice case (an amalgam of cases in which he has appeared as an expert witness) as a framework for addressing these complex issues. In this composite case, a neonatologist decides to stop the resuscitation of a premature infant who he believes is past reasonable care. But the baby survives with...