ABSTRACT

The central aim of this chapter is to show that perinatal palliative and hospice care manifests the virtue of hospitality. Section II summarizes evidence indicating that families experience unwelcoming encounters within medical institutions following an adverse diagnosis. Section III develops an account of the individual virtue of hospitality and several of its opposing vices including hostility and indifference. It also describes several expressions of counterfeit welcome opposed to the virtue of hospitality. Section IV shows how professional communities and institutions can manifest hospitality through engagement in a common project of hospitable welcome. Social structures within these institutions are hospitable to the extent that they facilitate or encourage caring participation in this endeavor. Section V describes some practical steps professional communities and institutions may take to foster an institutional culture more hospitable to families who have received an adverse in utero diagnosis.