ABSTRACT
Perinatal palliative and hospice care is a novel form of care for families who choose to continue a pregnancy following an adverse in utero diagnosis. This chapter highlights the basic commitments and distinctive promise of a virtue-based defense of perinatal hospice. Section II contrasts a virtue-based defense with extant defenses rooted in concerns for (i) moral status, (ii) reproductive autonomy, or (iii) supportive medical care. Section III notes the ways the virtue-based defense is indebted to both Alasdair MacIntyre’s analysis of the virtues of acknowledged dependence and Robert Adams’s account of common projects. Section IV details a distinctive personal dimension of this work: the author’s family benefitted from this form of care. This experience provides important insights into the kinds of goods realized through this exemplary form of care. It also grounds an important methodological commitment: in each chapter of this book, the author draws upon narratives of those who have chosen to continue a pregnancy following an adverse diagnosis. These stories highlight both the needs occasioned by an adverse prenatal diagnosis and the ways perinatal hospice envelops affected families in an ethos of virtuous care. Section V describes the contents of the remaining chapters.
