Maternal-Fetal Intervention and Fetal Care Centers

Number 501

ABSTRACT: The past two decades have yielded profound advances in the fields of prenatal diagnosis and fetal intervention. Although fetal interventions are driven by a beneficence-based motivation to ...

Medical Futility

Number 362

(Reaffirmed 2008)

ABSTRACT: The construct of medical futility has been used to justify a physician's unilateral refusal to provide treatment requested or demanded by a patient or the family of a patient. It is importa...

Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction

Number 553

(Replaces No. 369, June 2007)

ABSTRACT: Fertility treatments have contributed significantly to the increase in multifetal pregnancies. The first approach to the problem of multifetal pregnancies should be prevention, and strategi...

Nonmedical use of Obstetric Ultrasonography

Number 297

(Reaffirmed 2012)

ABSTRACT: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has endorsed the "Prudent Use" statement from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) discouraging the use of ...

Partner Consent for Participation in Women's Reproductive Health Research

Number 307

(Reaffirmed 2008)

ABSTRACT: Recent advances in reproductive medicine include treatment of subfertility as well as investigation of agents that may serve as both contraceptives and potential prophylaxis against sexuall...

Patents Medicine and the Interests of Patients

Number 364

(Reaffirmed 2009)

ABSTRACT: Many basic scientists and clinicians support the right to obtain and enforce patents on drugs, diagnostic tests, medical devices, and most recently, genes. Although those who develop useful...

Patient Testing Ethical Issues in Selection and Counseling

Number 363

(Reaffirmed 2012)

ABSTRACT: Recommendations to patients about testing should be based on current medical knowledge, a concern for the patient's best interests, and mutual consultation. In addition to establishing a di...

Professional Relationships With Industry

Number 541

(Replaces No. 401, March 2008)

ABSTRACT: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (the College) has a long history of leadership in ensuring that its educational mission is evidence based and unbiased. A predecessor...

Professional Responsibilities in Obstetric-Gynecologic Medical Education and Training

Number 500

(Replaces No. 358, January 2007)

ABSTRACT: The education of health care professionals is essential to maintaining standards of medical competence and access to care by patients. Inherent in the education of health care professionals...

Research Involving Women

Number 377

ABSTRACT: All women should be presumed to be eligible for participation in clinical studies. The potential for pregnancy should not automatically exclude a woman from participating in a clinical stud...

Seeking and Giving Consultation

Number 365

ABSTRACT: Consultations usually are sought when practitioners with primary clinical responsibility recognize conditions or situations that are beyond their level of expertise or available resources. ...

Sex Selection

Number 360

(Reaffirmed 2011)

ABSTRACT: In this Committee Opinion, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Ethics presents various ethical considerations and arguments relevant to both prefertilizati...

Sexual Misconduct

Number 373

ABSTRACT: The physician-patient relationship is damaged when there is either confusion regarding professional roles and behavior or clear lack of integrity that allows sexual exploitation and harm. S...

Sterilization of Women Including Those With Mental Disabilities

Number 371

(Reaffirmed 2009)

ABSTRACT: Sterilization, like any other surgical procedure, must be carried out under the general ethical principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, and justice. Women requesting sterilization ...

Surgery and Patient Choice

Number 395

ABSTRACT: Acknowledgment of the importance of patient autonomy and increased patient access to information has prompted more patient–generated requests for surgical interventions not necessarily reco...

Surrogate Motherhood

Number 397

ABSTRACT: Ethical responsibilities are described for obstetrician–gynecologists who choose to participate in surrogacy arrangements by 1) advising couples who are considering surrogacy, 2) counseling...

The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine

Number 385

(Reaffirmed 2010)

ABSTRACT: Health care providers occasionally may find that providing indicated, even standard, care would present for them a personal moral problem—a conflict of conscience—particularly in the field ...

Using Preimplantation Embryos for Research

Number 347

(Reaffirmed 2008)

ABSTRACT: Human embryonic stem cell research promises an increased understanding of the molecular process underlying cell differentiation. Transplantation of embryonic stem cells or their derivatives...