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PUBLICATIONID : 48198
PUBLICATIONTYPE : 1
TYPE : Article
TITLE : Culpability and blame after pregnancy loss
ORIG_TITLE : Culpability and blame after pregnancy loss
AUTHOR : Hale, B.
FIRST_AUTHOR : Hale, B.
AUTHOR_COUNT : 1
ADDRESS : Univ Colorado, Dept Philosophy, Boulder, CO 80309 USA
FIRSTAUTHOREMPLOYER : 3
ABBREV_JOURNAL : Journal of Medical Ethics
BEGINPAGE : 24
ENDPAGE : 27
VOLUME : 33
ISSUE : 1
PUBLISH_DATE : 1-Jan
YEAR : 2007
URL : http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2600-2007.37.pdf
REFEREED : 1
CREATE_TIME : 1278436949
RESOURCE : ISI:000243306100007
CITATION : 4
DEPT : CSTPR
LAST_UPDATED : 2010-07-09 08:27:19
ISSN : 0306-6800
IDS : 123OV
DOI : 10.1136/jme.2005.015560
ABSTRACT : The problem of feeling guilty about a pregnancy loss is suggested to be primarily a moral matter and not a medical or psychological one. Two standard approaches to women who blame themselves for a loss are first introduced, characterised as either psychologistic or deterministic. Both these approaches are shown to underdetermine the autonomy of the mother by depending on the notion that the mother is not culpable for the loss if she 'could not have acted otherwise''. The inability to act otherwise is explained as not being as strong a determinant of culpability as it may seem at first. Instead, people's culpability for a bad turn of events implies strongly that they have acted for the wrong reasons, which is probably not true in the case of women who have experienced a loss of pregnancy. The practical conclusion of this paper is that women who feel a sense of guilt in the wake of their loss have a good reason to reject both the psychologistic and the deterministic approaches to their guilt - that they are justified in feeling upset about what has gone wrong, even responsible for the life of the child, but are not culpable for the unfortunate turn of events.
KEYWORDS : MORAL RESPONSIBILITY; DEATH; FRANKFURT; PARENTS
KEYWORD_PLUS : MORAL RESPONSIBILITY; DEATH; FRANKFURT; PARENTS
AREA : Ethics; Medical Ethics; Social Issues; Social Sciences, Biomedical
FIRST_AUTHOR_EMAIL : bhale@colorado.edu
PUBLICATION : JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS
PLACE : LONDON
LANGUAGE : English
SERIAL : 48198
PAGES : 24-27
ONLINE_PUBLICATION : no
VERSION : 1
FIRST_AUTHOR_ADDRESS : Hale, B, Univ Colorado, Dept Philosophy, Campus Box 232, Boulder, CO 80309 USA
AUTHOR_OTHER_FORM : Hale, B.
REFERENCES_NUM : 12
REFERENCE : BENFIELD DG, 1978, PEDIATRICS, V62, P171; CLYMAN RI, 1980, CRIT CARE MED, V8, P215; FISH WC, 1986, PARENTAL LOSS CHILD, P415; FRANKFURT H, 1988, IMPORTANCE WHAT WE C; FRIEDMAN T, 1989, BRIT J PSYCHIAT, V155, P810; GILES PFH, 1970, AUSTRALIAN NEW ZEALA, V10, P207; HUNT DP, 2000, PHILOS STUD, V97, P195; MELE AR, 1998, PHILOS REV, V107, P97; VANINWAGEN P, 1978, PHILOS REV, V87, P201; WIDERKER D, 1991, ANALYSIS, V51, P222; WING DG, 2001, PSYCHOTHERAPY, V38, P60; ZIMMERMAN MJ, 1997, ETHICS, V107, P419
PUBLISHER_ADDRESS : BRITISH MED ASSOC HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON WC1H 9JR, ENGLAND
COUNT : 1