ETHICAL INCIDENT

Ethical Incident

Introduction

My friend Melissa Rowland, a 28 year old woman, she worked for a hospital in the child birth department. She had been pregnant with twins, was charged by the State of Utah in 2004 with murder and child endangerment for refusing to permit a timely cesarean section that resulted in the death of one of her twins. The article is perplexing by the detail that Melissa had four other young kids (two of which were previously consigned by cesarean section): two were granted up for adoption, and one was taken away by child shielding services. She conveyed a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder and had been convicted of felony larceny, as well as endangerment of another progeny in the past. She apparently had traveled from Florida to Utah in order to give these twins up for adoption, and had sought no prenatal care. (Richard 2004)

In the three weeks prior to her eventual consignment, Melissa did contact two different clinics in the saline lagoon City area. On December 25 she communicated one clinic by telephone complaining of no fetal action and was suggested to proceed to a hospital immediately. She did not. She was then seen on January 2 by a physician at another hospital who recommended an immediate cesarean section due to oligohy-dramnios (abnormally small amount of amniotic fluid), fetal growth retardation, and repetitive fetal heart rate decelerations, but Melissa left against medical advice stating that the scar would “ruin her life” (in spite of the fact that she had had two previous cesarean sections and was warned of the risk of death or brain injury to her twins if she refused treatment). She offered to another hospital on January 9 to see if her offspring were alive; no heart rate could be discovered on one of the twins by external monitor, but afresh Melissa left afreshst health advice.  eventually she returned to one of the clinics on January 13, and was delivered by cesarean section; twin A was a stillborn male infant, and twin B, a young female, was discovered to have cocaine and alcohol in her body-fluid at birth. The medical examiner determined that the stillborn male had no congenital anomalies and had died about two days prior to delivery. (Mark 2006)

After being ascribed with murder and child endangerment, Melissa ultimately pled at fault to two enumerations of progeny endangerment. Her judgment of successive jail terms and fines were suspended in lieu of 100 hours of community service and 18 months of probation, encompassing culmination of outpatient mental health and matter abuse treatment, a rehab program, and a parenting skills class. Melissa, although, left the state and complied with none of her probation stipulations. Ultimately, her enduring progeny was removed from her dwelling as well. The Utah locality attorney turned down to have Melissa returned to the state. 

Ethical Issues/Dilemma

This case developed a great deal of argument in the court room as well as in the media. Charging a mother with killing for willfully contributing to the death of her ...