APPLETON, WIS. — The evolution of the “Baby Doe regulations” and the current status of decisions involving handicapped infants with life-threatening conditions will be the focus of the opening address in Lawrence University’s annual Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.
Dr. Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presents “Whatever Happened To Baby Doe?: The Transformation From Undertreatment To Overtreatment” Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Fost will review the history of the Baby Doe controversy and the lessons learned from the national response, beginning in the 1970’s, when parents and physicians commonly agreed to withhold standard life-saving treatment from handicapped infants. The celebrated “Hopkins Mongol Case,” involving an infant with Down Syndrome and duodenal atresia who was allowed to die of dehydration, sparked a film and symposium that attracted widespread national attention and played a pivotal role in the emerging field of bioethics.
Physicians, hospitals, legislatures and courts consistently allowed these practices until the 1980s when the Reagan administration issued “Baby Doe regulations” in response to a Bloomington, Ind., infant with a reparable birth defect who died. The new regulations resolved the problem of inappropriate undertreatment of infants who had excellent prospects for meaningful lives, but also resulted in the overtreatment of infants with limited prospects for meaningful life.
According to Fost, both the initial undertreatment and subsequent overtreatment were driven by concerns other than the best interests of the patient and by misunderstandings about the law.
A practicing pediatrician, Fost is the director of the UW’s program in medical ethics, which he founded in 1973. He also serves as head of the child protection team, chairman of the UW Hospital ethics committee and vice chair of the department of medical history and bioethics.
He was written widely on issues ranging from euthanasia of handicapped newborns and genetic screening to human subjects research and the use of performance enhancing drugs. He served on President Clinton’s Health Care Task Force, the National Academy of Science Committee on Guidelines for Stem Cell Research, whose report was published in 2005 and is currently a member of the FDA’s Pediatric Advisory Committee on Children’s Drugs.
Fost has appeared frequently on national television shows, including “Nightline,” “Frontline,” “Crossfire,” “Good Morning, America,” “The News Hour,” “Oprah,” and HBO’s “Real Sports.” He was awarded the 2004 Nellie Westermann Prize for Research Ethics and received the William G. Bartholome Award for Excellence in Ethics from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2003.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, his medical degree from Yale University and master’s degree of public health from Harvard University. He completed residency training in pediatrics and two years as Chief Resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and spent 1972-73 as a fellow in the Harvard Program in Law, Medicine and Ethics.
Joining Fost on this year’s series will be Jonathan Moreno, professor of biomedical ethics at the University of Virginia, who will deliver the address “Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense” on March 30, 2007.
Fost’s appearance is supported by the Edward F. Mielke Lectureship in Ethics in Medicine, Science and Society. The lectureship was established in 1985 by the Mielke Family Foundation in memory of Dr. Edward F. Mielke, a leading member of the Appleton medical community and the founder of the Appleton Medical Center.
