I will interview individuals who have worked in NICUs [neonatologists, nurses, social
workers] to understand how technological changes and changing scientific understanding
influenced decision making pertaining to the treatment of infants. The interviews will
supplement my extensive research of the medical literature and other pertinent publications.
Between the 1960s and the present, we have seen the emergence of medical therapies and
technologies developed to treat neonates. Over this time period, there has also been a
changing and growing understanding of the long-term impact that medical interventions have on
the infants treated as well as on their families. Finally, the demographic characteristics of
neonates have also changed as public health crises as well as the development of modern
reproductive technologies led to new patient populations and new expectations of what NICUs
should or should not achieve. I am interested in the ways in which these changes have led to
evolving treatment criteria for neonates and ways in which neonatologists decided when to
treat and when treatment was considered futile. I will interview medical professionals who
are working or have worked at NICUs about the changes they experienced in their place of work
over the course of their careers, the impact that medical technologies and changing patient
populations had on considerations about treatment options, and the discussions they had with
colleagues and the parents of patients.
There is to date no sustained historical analysis of neonatology. There are anthropological
studies of the development of fetal surgery [Casper 1998] as well as Assisted Reproductive
Technologies [Spar, 2006; Thompson, 2005]. There are analyses of the social history of
particular medical interventions [abortion, birth control, etc.] [Schoen, 1995; Schoen 2005]
and the treatment of the fetus [Withycombe, 2019]. And scholars have discussed the value of
reproduction and the fetus as it pertains to emerging technologies of genetic testing and the
history of disability [Davis, 2019; Herzog, 2018; Lowy, 2018; Maienschein, 2003; Maienschein,
2014; Rapp, 2000; Reagan, 2010.] This study will contribute to our understanding of the ways
in which medical professionals have made decisions about life, death, and the quality of life
of those being treated.
