[Ethical problems in perinatal medicine: thoughts of a pediatrician]

Abstract

This study contributes to the consideration of some ethical problems in perinatal and neonatal medicine. The prenatal and postnatal periods present the continuity of human life in its earliest period. All prenatal events are manifested eventually in a newborn human being and determine its ability to further develop until full biological and sociological maturity is reached. New possibilities of medicine, regarding diagnostics, treatment and prevention of diseases affecting fetuses and neonates, brought some crucial philosophical and ethical questions of life, death, human rights and human existence. They have to be answered by both gynecologists and pediatricians, together with the whole social community, as to apply those new achievements to their object-for the good of mankind.