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28 Cap. U. L. Rev. 251 (1999-2000)
Neonatology Life and Death Decisions: Can Mediation Help

handle is hein.journals/capulr28 and id is 261 raw text is: NEONATOLOGY LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS: CAN MEDIATION HELP ? KIMBERLEE K. KOVACH* A distraught father, Rudy Linares, held staffers and police at bay with a gun at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center while he disconnected his comatose 15-month-old son's respirator and held him until the child died' I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW This paper explores mediation's potential to assist in the difficult process of life and death decision making that takes place in hospital neonatology intensive care units (NICU).2 It is hoped that at a minimum this work will provoke a consideration of a new view of the way decisions are made. While several articles have examined decision making in the context of neonatal care,3 very few have focused on the process of making the decision. Rather, most discussions focus on the outcome, as well as the criteria used in making such decisions.5 Focus has also been placed on who should be making these decisions.6 Because of the types of decisions that are made, the lasting consequences of the decisions, and the myriad of persons effected, it is also important that the process itself be considered. In this article, the decision-making process in the NICU as it currently exists will be examined.7 Use of alternative dispute resolution, and Copyright 0 2000, Kimberlee K. Kovach. * Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law. Jean Latz Griffen & William Grady, Hospital in center of storm: Life-support controversy follows death of infant, CHI. TRn., Apr. 28, 1989, at 1. 2 Neonatology is the area of medicine which deals in the treatment of newborns who require specialized care. See MICHAEL D. VOLK, OBSTETRIC AND NEONATAL MALPRACTICE: LEGAL AND MEDICAL HANDBOOK § 2.8, at 2-9 (2d ed. 1987). 3 See Frank I. Clark, Withdrawl of Life-Support in the Newborn: Whose Baby Is It?, 23 Sw. U. L. REv. 1 (1993); Jennifer Stokley, Note, Withdrawing or Withholding Medical Care from Premature Infants: Who Should Decide and How?, 70 N.D. L. REv. 129 (1994); Patricia M. Phillips, Comment, Treatment Decisions for Seriously Ill Newborns: Who Should Decide?, 21 CAP. U. L. REv. 919 (1992). 4 See, e.g., Carl E. Schneider, Rights Discourse and Neonatal Euthanasia, 76 CALIF. L. REV. 151 (1988). 5 See C. Versluys, Ethics of Neonatal Care, LANCET, Mar. 27, 1993. 6 See sources cited supra note 3. 7 I am mindful that many NICUs exist throughout the United States and the world, and that they will allrdiffer somewhat.

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