Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:02:02.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A View from the Netherlands: Ethics as Interactive Evaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2001

Rob Reuzel
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Technology Assessment at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
Gert Jan Van der Wilt
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Technology Assessment at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Pieter de Vries Robbé
Affiliation:
Medical Informatics at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands
Henk ten Have
Affiliation:
Department of Ethics, Philosophy, and History of Medicine at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Abstract

From 1991 to 1994 the Dutch Health Insurance Council financed research on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). This is a technique for providing cardiopulmonary bypass to patients with pulmonary and/or cardiac failure. Most often, these patients are premature neonates. During ECMO, blood is drained from the right atrium, pumped along a membrane where gas exchange takes place, and then redirected to the aorta. To prevent blood clotting, heparin is added. However, with the heparin added, the risk of hemorrhage is considerably increased. Therefore, both the chance of surviving and the chance of severe disability are higher with ECMO than with conventional treatment (i.e., ventilator support).

Type
NETWORKING NEWS
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)