Caring for Pregnant Patients With CKD---An Ethical Discussion of 5 Cases

Abstract

Introduction: Pregnancy planning in patients with chronic kidney disease can result in ethical conflicts due to the potential for adverse outcomes. Traditionally, many nephrologists have advised their patients to avoid pregnancy altogether; however, this approach is paternalistic and not patient-centered. An ethical framework could guide joint decision-making between physicians and their patients, but this does not currently exist.

Methods: We performed a literature search to identify the ethical considerations associated with this patient population. We searched for articles published between 1975 and 2019 using the terms "ethics" and "high risk pregnancy," along with 29 chronic disease-specific MeSH terms. Subsequently, we performed a critical evaluation using established ethical theories and adapted anonymized clinical cases from the Pregnancy in Kidney Disease Clinic (PreKid Clinic) at our institution to guide the discussion.

Results: We identified 968 articles and excluded 947 based on their title or abstract. Twelve full-text articles were included, representing discussions, case reports, and literature reviews on the ethics of pregnancy in 8 chronic diseases. The extracted data were applied to 5 clinical cases to guide the discussion.

Conclusions: This clinical review focuses on 3 main ethical themes: duty to patient, duty to the fetus, and duty to society, to help physicians explore common scenarios that may arise when counseling patients around pregnancy. Primarily, physicians have a duty to facilitate autonomous decision-making and informed consent. Secondarily, they have a duty to protect the fetus and use resources judiciously as long as it does not impact the care of their patients.

Keywords: bioethics; chronic kidney disease; pregnancy; women's health.

Graphical abstract

Figure 1

Selection process for articles included in literature review.