Handout 2: Case Studies

In the following four cases the patient is asking for termination of pregnancy. How do you think the doctors should respond?

1. A 14 year old girl who had been taking the contraceptive pill conceived having missed a pill and following intercourse without barrier contraception. She is now 8 weeks pregnant. Both she and her boyfriend do not feel that they are old enough to contemplate having a family, as they are both at school.

2. A 19 year old woman who conceived following sexual assault (rape). The pregnancy is unwanted. She is 6 weeks pregnant.

3. A 25 year old business woman who conceived with her regular partner, following failed emergency contraception. Both she and her partner envisage having children in the future, but at the moment pregnancy does not fit into their life styles. She is 9 weeks pregnant.

4. A couple wish to terminate a pregnancy at 32 weeks for severe Spina Bifida which was missed at time of anomaly scan.

For further information on Termination of Pregnancy:

• the UK Clinical Ethics Network web site has a detailed discussion around these issues .
• Hope T, Savulescu J, and Hendrick J - Medical Ethics and Law : the Core Curriculum. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier Science, 2003. The main text book used for the University of Oxford Medical Ethics and Law course provides more details for both teachers and their students.
• Hope T - Medical Ethics; a Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Ashcroft A, Lucassen A, Parker M, Verkerk M, and Widdershoven G - Case Analysis in Clinical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

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